New Jersey hospitals will soon be required to report on all hospital-acquired infections to the state Department of Health and Senior Services. Gov. Jon Corzine (D) has signed a bill into law which creates a system for collecting infection rates reports, then posting them (by specific hospital) on a state Web site. Hospitals will now be reporting on surgical infections, urinary tract infections related to catheters, pneumonia related to ventilators and catheter-related blood infections. The new law will also require hospitals to report what steps they're taking to control infections.
While the new law is understandably a big deal for hospitals--who had fought hard against making the disclosures--they will have some time to ramp up their data collection efforts. In fact, the data may not become available to the public for two years or more. State officials are currently in talks with hospital executives and infection-control experts to determine how the rollout will work.
To learn more about the new law:
- read this piece from The Star-Ledger
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