Alaska Activity (11 items)
How do you choose a hospital? What if you could call up a Web site and compare one hospital against the others based on how many infections have been acquired there? That's not possible in Alaska. But it could be soon.
Alaska lawmakers have established a task force to develop recommendations for hospitals to disclose infection rates.
More than 290,000 surgical site infections occur in U.S. hospitals each year. Patients who acquire infections from surgery spend, on average, an additional 6.5 days in the hospital, are five times more likely to be readmitted after discharge, and twice as likely to die.
Surgery patients are at risk for infection because surgical incisions create a pathway for germs to enter the body. Maintaining a sterile environment in the operating room is therefore critical to protect patients from being contaminated with bacteria, which can lead to infection.
How well is your hospital, state and the nation as a whole are performing on three key practices that help prevent infections during surgery? Find out here »
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