TodayState’s PHC4 health care reporting already working
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Editorial
Article RatingIt seems a contradiction. The 2006 statistics are out on how many people contracted infections in Pennsylvania hospitals: The number is up sharply. And this is good news.
In fact, the number of reported infections was up 60 percent over 2005 – more than 30,000 people, the Associated Press reports. The data, collected by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), is public because Pennsylvania is one of 22 states that requires it to be so.
The idea is that, with more information available, patients can make better choices about where to seek treatment and hospitals will be able to take measurable steps to improve, hopefully reducing costs as at the same time. After all, ineffective treatment costs both patient and hospital more in the long run. Hospital-acquired infection is not only at the top of the complications list but largely avoidable through simple precautions such as frequent hand-washing by staff.
Simply measuring and comparing in a uniform manner shows where improvement must occur.
It is important to understand what the latest PHC4 numbers are reporting, however.
A year-to-year comparison is not possible, because reporting requirements were phased in over the last six months of 2005. But the final quarter of 2005 can be compared to 2006 – and that shows a significant decline.
Four areas are examined: pneumonia as a result of ventilator use, bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections and surgical site infections for circulatory, neurological and orthopedic procedures.
There was a rate of 19.2 infections per 1,000 patients in the state’s 165 general hospitals for all of 2005, but for the fourth quarter of the two years, which can be compared, the rate per 1,000 patients dropped from 16.3 in 2005 to 15.1 in 2006.
Health officials say this shows that the reporting requirement is already having a positive effect.
Giving the urgent need to reform health care – from delivery to cost containment – it is good to know that the commonwealth has become a leader in this regard. While almost half the states collect data, Pennsylvania is one of only five states issuing regular reports and getting them into the hands of the public in an understandable form.
And only Pennsylvania is collecting the information in all areas of serious infection.
PHC4, an independent, state-funded agency formed in 1998, has also issued reports on cardiac care, diabetes, hip and knee replacement and other hospital performance areas. (For more, go to http://www.phc4.org).
With so many proposals on the table in Harrisburg, many of them expensive and complex, it is good to know that something as simple as the PCH4 endeavor is already working.
