State releases new data on hospital infections

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has released new data on hospital-acquired infections for Memorial and Penrose Hospitals. The information is available online at www.cdphe.state.co.us/hf/PatientSafety/HFAI/index.html.
The semi-annual bulletin shows the first six months of data collected from a new reporting system established by a state law approved in 2006. Hospital-acquired infections, infections that occur during or after treatment for a different condition, usually occur when medical procedures such as a central line, a type of catheter placed near the heart, introduce infections into the bloodstream.
Memorial Health System’s central hospital and Penrose-St. Francis’s Health Services’ central hospital, the only two listed in the bulletin, both ranked average. Additional reports will be released later this year.