New infection data from 4 new states, 40 new hospitals

How well does your hospital prevent infections? You might be able to find out using our Hospital Ratings. We've just added publicly reported data from four states, and updated hundreds of hospitals nationwide. We now have infection data on 959 hospitals in 44 states, to go along with Ratings of hospitals in other categories, such as patient Ratings of doctor and nurse communication, cleanliness, attentiveness, pain control.

Our infection Ratings focus specifically on central-line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI)—a type of hospital-acquired infection caused by the mishandling of a type of catheter often used on patients in intensive-care units (ICU)—and compare each hospital's infection rate to national rates for that hospital's type of ICUs. Our hospital Ratings pull together data from states that require hospitals to report on these infections, and from our partner, The Leapfrog Group, which compiles infection data that hospitals provide voluntarily.

A recent Consumer Reports investigation found that a simple checklist can prevent nearly all of these infections, but many hospitals fail to implement such measures. The result: central-line infections are responsible for at least 30 percent of the 99,000 annual hospital-infection-related deaths, according to the best estimates available.

Our latest data includes information from four new states that require public reporting: Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Oregon. Some states that require public reporting of hospital infections have seen reduced infection rates.

The best

Our analysis found 117 hospitals had at least 1,000 central line days—the total number of days the hospital's ICU had patients on central line catheters—without a single central line infection. Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Menorah Medical Center, in Overland Park, Kan., had the best performance, with no infections in nearly 7,000 central line days.

The worst

Two Chicago hospitals had the poorest rates of infection. Thorek Memorial Hospital had an infection rate 12 times the national rate, and Roseland Community Hospital was right behind with a rate of infection of nearly eight times the national rate.

—Kevin McCarthy, associate editor

For more on hospital infections, including tips on how consumers can reduce their risk of acquiring a hospital infection, see our full report, and Consumer Union's Safe Patient Project.