Link: Infection Control Today
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) — infections that patients contract in hospitals, nursing homes, or other care settings — kill an estimated 90,000 patients each year in the United States. The National Quality Forum (NQF) announced a project to seek consensus on a set of national standards for public reporting of HAI data so that patients and their families can access this important information and providers can work to reduce such infections.
An estimated 2 million Americans contract HAIs each year. HAIs include surgical site infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and urinary tract infections. Experts believe that up to 30 percent of such infections are preventable. HAIs add up to an extra $5.7 billion in healthcare costs. Despite their dramatic impact, no national standard for reporting HAI data exists. In the past two years, seven states have passed legislation requiring the reporting of HAI data, and more than 30 states have similar legislation pending.
NQF will rectify this situation by endorsing national reporting standards and a standardized method for collecting, aggregating, and reporting HAI data that will allow comparisons across and among states and over time. Because of its transparent process and broad stakeholder participation, NQF-endorsed(TM) standards have special legal standing as voluntary consensus standards.
