Hospitals get guidelines on reporting infections

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines on Monday designed to help states track and alert the public to serious infections in hospitals and clinics.

Nearly two million people contract pneumonia, bacterial sepsis and other infections following surgery, insertion of catheters or other medical procedures in U.S. hospitals each year. About 90,000 die as a result.

Bowing to consumer pressure, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Florida have passed laws forcing hospitals to publicly report infections related to health care.

Another 30 states are moving to mandatory release of such information.

While acknowledging it was unsure whether these measures would lower infection rates, the CDC said it decided to issue voluntary recommendations after lawmakers and others sought its advice on how to set up mandatory reporting systems.

The CDC guidelines urge states that do so to consult with disease experts, adhere to established infection surveillance methods and provide regular and confidential feedback to health-care providers.

The Atlanta-based federal agency, which is responsible for monitoring and responding to a wide array of health threats, said it hoped hospitals and clinics as well as consumers would ultimately benefit from its guidance.

"The goal of mandatory reporting is to provide consumers with information they can use to make health-care choices," said Dr. Denise Cardo, director of the CDC's division of health-care quality promotion.

"We don't know yet if public reporting will reduce the number of infections, but we do support collecting information that can lead to improvements in patient safety," Cardo said.

Although some consumer advocacy groups have lobbied for mandatory state reporting of infections in health-care settings, hospitals have balked at the idea, fearing that it would add another costly layer of bureaucracy to their businesses while providing little or no valuable information to consumers.