APIC, SHEA Seek to Block Infection Disclosure Rules in CA

Additionally, the law requires hospitals to report monthly rather than quarterly, and send information as required to the National Healthcare Safety Network database of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which requires multiple additional pieces of information not just on the patients who endured the infections, but for patients who underwent all 900,000 procedures safely so the data may be appropriately risk adjusted.

Additionally, the law calls for hospital-by-hospital infection rate reporting to be published online by the state by January 2012, "including information on the number of inpatient days."

Complying with these requirements might be easier of hospitals already had electronic infection surveillance systems, but Olmsted points to a survey published last September in the American Journal of Infection Control that found of 207 responding California hospitals, only 23% had electronic surveillance systems in place.

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