Georgia hospitals penalized for hospital-acquired infections (Atlanta, Columbus: university, live, centers)

[Fountain-of-youth]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made the reduction of hospital-related infections a major focus for its organization. That includes tracking the progress made in preventing them. It said one in 25 hospital patients can expect to contract a health care-related infection on any given day.

Its website said there were an estimated 721,800 hospital-acquired infections (HAI) nationwide at acute-care facilities in 2011. Those infections came from ailments that included treatment of pneumonia, gastrointestinal illness, urinary tract and primary bloodstream infections and surgical-site infections from inpatient procedures.

“Steps can be taken to control and prevent HAIs in a variety of settings,” the CDC said. “Research shows that when health-care facilities, care teams, and individual doctors and nurses, are aware of infection problems and take specific steps to prevent them, rates of some targeted HAIs can decrease by more than 70 percent. Preventing HAIs is possible, but it will take a conscious effort of everyone — clinicians, health-care facilities and systems, public health, quality improvement groups, and the federal government — working together toward improving care, protecting patients and saving lives.”

Here are the Georgia hospitals (as reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle) being penalized for hospital-acquired infection rates by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:

▪ Athens Regional Medical Center

▪ AU Medical Center

▪ Candler Hospital

▪ Crisp Regional Hospital

▪ DeKalb Medical Center

▪ Eastside Medical Center (Emory Eastside Medical Center)

▪ Emory Johns Creek Hospital

▪ Emory University Hospital

▪ Emory University Hospital Midtown

▪ Grady Memorial Hospital

▪ Gwinnett Medical Center

▪ Habersham County Medical Center

▪ Hamilton Medical Center

▪ Meadows Regional Medical Center

▪ Navicent Health (formerly the Medical Center of Central Georgia)

▪ Memorial Health University Medical Center Inc.

▪ Midtown Medical Center in Columbus, Ga.

▪ Oconee Regional Medical Center

▪ Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital

▪ Piedmont Hospital

▪ Rockdale Medical Center

▪ Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta Inc. (Emory Saint Joseph's)

▪ Southeastern Regional Medical Center (Cancer Treatment Centers of America)

▪ Southern Regional Medical Center

▪ St. Joseph's Hospital - Savannah

▪ Tift Regional Medical Center

▪ University Hospital McDuffie

▪ WellStar Atlanta Medical Center

▪ WellStar Kennestone Hospital

▪ WellStar Paulding Hospital

Midtown Medical Center penalized for hospital-acquired infections | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

..

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by Fountain-of-youth

..

Good grief! That list includes what many consider to be the highest quality providers in the state, and, in some instances, in the country. That's very frightening, particularly to someone like me who is allergic to numerous antibiotics.