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MDHSS Launches Hospital Infections Website

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Missouri has a new website that anyone can go to for information about how often patients contract infections while in the state's hospitals. Michele Skalicky reports.

Missouri has a new website that anyone can go to for information about how often patients contract infections while in the state's hospitals.

Eddie Hedrick is emerging infections coordinator for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which launched the website December 29th.

(He says the website is the result of legislation passed in 2004.)

According to Centers for Disease Control Data, 5 to 7 percent of all persons admitted to the hospital come down with an infection while there. Hedrick says some of those are preventable and some are not.

While Missouri is the 3rd state in the nation to make public data on hospital infections, it's the first state to make risk-adjusted data available to the public. Eddie Hedrick says the Missouri model is being considered for adoption by national regulatory agencies as the standard for other states.

Hedrick hopes the new website will give the public a glimpse of some of the indicators of quality in institutions.

He says the hope, too, is that, by publishing this data, hospitals will put more resources into monitoring and preventing infections.

According to Hedrick, the data currently focuses on central line-associated blood stream infections. But that's just one of 3 major indicators that will be coming out this year. At the end of February, data on both the central lines and surgical site infections will be made available. Later in the year, information about things that can be done for ventilator-associated pneumonia will be posted.

The web address is www.dhss.mo.gov/HAI.

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Michele Skalicky has worked at KSMU since the station occupied the old white house at National and Grand. She enjoys working on both the announcing side and in news and has been the recipient of statewide and national awards for news reporting. She likes to tell stories that make a difference. Michele enjoys outdoor activities, including hiking, camping and leisurely kayaking.