The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Friday released its fourth annual report for the legislature concerning the status of the Health Facility-Acquired Infections Disclosure Initiative. The report contains data for surgical site infections in cardiac, orthopedic and abdominal operative procedures, data from adult and neonatal critical care units and long-term acute care hospitals for central line-associated bloodstream infections as well as data from dialysis treatment centers for dialysis-related infections.Dialysis treatment centers began reporting in March 2010 and this is the first look at this data. The reporting period for this data is from March 1, 2010 – July 31, 2010. Colorado is the first state to require dialysis treatment centers to report dialysis-related infections.
A new analysis in this year’s report is the comparison to the “historical data.” For most of the data collected (excluding hysterectomy infection data and dialysis-related infection data), there are two to three years of data. This allows for the comparison of the current data to previous years to ascertain if a facility is doing better, worse or the same. This report and other health facility-acquired infection bulletins are available online at www.cdphe.state.co.us/hf/patientsafety/index.html. For more information about this report or patient safety initiatives underway at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, please contact the Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division at 303-692-2800 or visit www.healthfacilities.info.
