After years of steady improvement, Hilo Medical Center has earned the top score in the state for preventing hospital-acquired infections.
Health care-associated infections, or HAIs, are infections that patients acquire in hospitals during the course of receiving treatment for other conditions. The infections can be “devastating and even deadly,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The latest data from the national Department of Health and Human Services shows HMC scored higher than all other Hawaii hospitals — public and private — involved in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program. HMC also was ranked in the top 2 percent in the nation, with only 54 facilities earning higher scores.
Hospitals that score poorly on the metrics are penalized by Medicare with lower reimbursements.
But, “beyond the financial incentive, we have an incredible team of physicians, nurses, aides and housekeepers in all clinical areas who care deeply about our community and are committed to quality and patient satisfaction,” said Dan Brinkman, East Hawaii Regional CEO of Hawaii Health Systems Corp., which operates Hilo Medical Center.
The data, which can be seen on the Medicare Hospital Compare website at medicare.gov/hospitalcompare, was collected through March 2015 and began either at the beginning of the year or April 1, 2014, depending on the metric.
During the data-collection period, HMC reported zero central line-associated bloodstream infections in its intensive care unit or select wards. Central line infections occur when catheters are inserted into large veins and can be deadly to patients, shutting down organs throughout the body.
An estimated 41,000 central-line associated bloodstream infections occur in U.S. hospitals each year, according to the CDC, and can typically prolong hospital stays, as well as increasing costs and the risk of mortality.
The Hilo hospital also reported a total of two catheter-associated urinary tract infections in its ICU, earning it a “standardized infection ratio” of .659, well below the national benchmark of 1. A facility’s standardized infection ratio is a comparison of the actual number of infections contracted by patients, compared with the number predicted, based on nationwide statistics.
The hospital also reported a single surgical site infection from colon surgery and a single clostridium difficile intestinal infection.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
