California Hospitals Taking Steps To Reduce Rates of Health Care-Associated Infections

Late last year, the California Department of Public Health released its first-ever report on infection rates at hundreds of general acute-care hospitals across the state.

Officials acknowledge that the report had several shortcomings related to data collection and other issues. For the next report, the state plans to use a standardized CDC system that will allow for better hospital-to-hospital comparisons on infection rates.

In a California Healthline Special Report by Kelly Wilkinson, experts discussed steps that state officials and hospitals are taking to reduce rates of health care-associated infections.

The Special Report includes comments from:

Kim Delahanty, administrative director of infection prevention at the UC-San Diego Health System;
Kevin Reilly, chief deputy director for policy and programs at the California Department of Public Health; and
Debby Rogers, vice president of quality and emergency services at the California Hospital Association (Wilkinson, California Healthline, 2/9).

The complete transcript of this Special Report is available as a PDF.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

<h1>California Hospitals Taking Steps To Reduce Rates of Health Care-Associated Infections</h1>
<div>		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2011-02-09T00:00:00-08:00">
			February 9, 2011		</time>
		</div>
<p>Late last year, the California Department of Public Health released its <a href="https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2011/02/haireportsb-1058bsi-final.pdf">first-ever report</a> on infection rates at hundreds of general acute-care hospitals across the state.</p><p>Officials acknowledge that the report had several shortcomings related to data collection and other issues. For the next report, the state plans to use a standardized CDC system that will allow for better hospital-to-hospital comparisons on infection rates.</p><p>In a <i>California Healthline </i>Special Report by Kelly Wilkinson, experts discussed steps that state officials and hospitals are taking to reduce rates of health care-associated infections.</p><p>The Special Report includes comments from:</p><ul><li>Kim Delahanty, administrative director of infection prevention at the UC-San Diego Health System; </li><li>Kevin Reilly, chief deputy director for policy and programs at the California Department of Public Health; and </li><li>Debby Rogers, vice president of quality and emergency services at the California Hospital Association (Wilkinson, <i>California Healthline</i>, 2/9).</li></ul><p>The complete transcript of this Special Report is <a href="https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2011/02/chlspecialreporttranscript2911.pdf">available as a PDF</a>.</p><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em><p><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.</p>

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