Brief Description: Hospital Infections.

Sponsors: Representatives Campbell, Morrell, Skinner, Hankins, Simpson, Schindler and Chase.

Hearing Date: 1/10/06

Staff: Chris Blake (786-7392).

Background:

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects data about hospital-acquired infections through the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System. This program collects information from approximately 300 large-size hospitals on a voluntary basis. The database is intended to serve three functions: (1) describe the epidemiology of health care-associated infections; (2) describe the antimicrobial resistance associated with these infections; and (3) produce aggregated infection rates suitable for interhospital comparisons. Hospital-specific data is not released through this program. Through this data, the CDC estimates that each year approximately two million patients are infected as a result of the receipt of health care services that they receive and about 90,000 of these patients die from their infections.

The Washington State Department of Health (Department) licensing standards require that hospitals maintain infection control programs to reduce the occurrence of hospital-acquired infections. As a part of this program, hospitals must adopt policies and procedures based on CDC guidelines for reducing infections.

Summary of Bill:

Acute care hospitals are required to collect information about the rates of hospital-acquired infections at their facilities for certain categories of infections or clinical procedures. These categories of infections include surgical site infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, central line-related bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, Clostridium difficile infections, and other categories that the Department determines necessary. Hospitals must submit quarterly reports of this data to the Department. Information contained in the hospital reports is not subject to public disclosure or discovery or admissible as evidence in a court proceeding.

The Department shall adopt guidelines and rules for the collection, reporting, analysis, and release of hospital-acquired infection rates at hospitals. An advisory committee is established to make recommendations to the Department in developing standards for conducting these activities. The Department shall publish the report annually and the report will provide comparisons of the infection rates at different hospitals. The data in the Department's reports must be risk-adjusted to account for patient mix and must be aggregated by facility.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Requested on January 4, 2006.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.