Mass. launches hospital infection crackdown

Massachusetts regulators have gotten deadly serious about fighting the spread of infections within hospitals. Yesterday, the Public Health Council approved a measure under which state inspectors will regularly visit hospitals to make sure they have appropriate infection-control measures in place--and that they're reporting infections promptly to the state when they do happen. During the same session, the panel also approved a program under which it will collect infection rate information for each hospital, then publish that "report card" to a state government site. The online report will initially include only infections in hip and knee surgery patients and patients who's have central venous catheters, though it's likely to expand over time. The new rules follow on a state report, released last summer, which found that hospital-acquired infections could be costing the state up to $473 million in added medical bills.

To learn more about the new regs:
- read this piece from The Boston Globe

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