Report Title:

Hospitals; Infections Reporting

Description:

Establishes a task force in the department of health to design a system for reporting hospital-acquired infections to the public. (SD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

132

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO HEALTH.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Although hospitals in Hawaii and the rest of the nation have had infection surveillance, prevention, and control programs for over thirty years, a national trend has begun to mandate the reporting of hospital-acquired infection data to the public. Florida, Illinois, Missouri, and Pennsylvania have now enacted mandatory reporting of hospital-acquired infection data, but each of the four states has different requirements, and there is currently no national standardized method for collecting and comparing hospital infection rates.

Many hospitals use the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System definitions to identify and measure the occurrence of healthcare-associated infections. But because each hospital monitors those infections and procedures that are most risky for their specific patient population, not all hospitals monitor the same infections. As a result, it is difficult to compare infection rates among different hospitals.

In order to use infection surveillance data to compare the quality of care among hospitals, all hospitals would have to collect the same data on the same types of infections and use the same methods to identify infections and collect data. Another complicating factor is that some hospitals admit patients who are more prone to infections than do other hospitals. In addition, certain types of treatments and procedures performed by a hospital have a greater chance for infection. As such, an adjustment factor must be developed so that hospital-specific information compares the infection rates of different hospitals in a meaningful way.

SECTION 2. There is hereby established a task force in the department of health to design a system for reporting hospital-acquired infections to the public. The task force members shall be appointed by the director of health and shall include representatives of: infection control professionals, epidemiologists, public health professionals, healthcare facility representatives, and consumers to participate in the design, implementation, validation, and evaluation of the reporting system.

The department of health shall provide necessary administrative and staff support to the task force.

SECTION 3. The task force shall consider the following issues in reporting hospital-acquired infection rates:

(1) Selection of appropriate indicators that will reflect the quality of care and infections that are potentially preventable;

(2) Standardized definitions and collection methods of infection or other reportable events;

(3) Selection of appropriate patients to monitor and use of appropriate denominators in establishing rates;

(4) Risk adjustment methods to account for differences in the patient population served (age, severity of illness) and therefore the likelihood of infections in those patients;

(5) Ensuring that facilities dedicate appropriate resources to surveillance and reporting without compromising infection prevention and control activities;

(6) Ensuring that adequate resources are available for the design, collection, analysis, reporting, and validation of the system, with appropriate follow-up for significant findings at the state level; and

(7) Use of a phased-in approach to evaluate the selected indicators and ensure they are meaningful.

SECTION 4. The task force members shall be reimbursed for their necessary expenses, including travel expenses incurred in the performance of official duties. The department of health shall provide staff support to the task force.

SECTION 5. The task force shall submit a progress report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2006, including proposed legislation and resource needs, if available at that time. The task force shall submit a final report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2007, including proposed legislation and resource needs. The task force shall cease to exist on June 30, 2007.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2010.