Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health would report to the public the infection rates of health care facilities in the state under a bill endorsed Tuesday afternoon by the House Health and Human Services Standing Committee.
Health care facilities are required to report this information to federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but there is no central database readily available to Utahns to compare infection rates among various health care facilities.
There is a level of concern in the public about infections. In fact, it raises to outright fear.
–Rep. Jack Draxler
Nationwide, one in 20 patients leaves a health care facility with an infection, said Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan, the sponsor of HB55.
"There is a level of concern in the public about infections. In fact, it raises to outright fear," he said.
Draxler said Utah health care providers say Utah has a lower rate of infections but "we don’t until we have accurate data to report to the public."
The estimated cost of the reporting system — a public database and staff to collect the federal reports and establish apples-to-apples comparisons of the data — would be about $181,000 a year. While Draxler had initially envisioned requiring health care facilities to report twice a year, "an annual report is the best we can hope for and will be a valid and substantiated report."
Rep. Daniel McCay, R-Riverton, questioned the proposed expenditure. Hospitals could report their respective infection rates on their own websites, he said. If hospitals want to be partners in this effort, they could help subsidize a website, McCay said.
- Cost: $181,000 a year
- Report updated annually
But people who spoke in favor of the bill argued that one centralized location for the information would help the public and conceivably provide information to health care facilities to prevent or better manage infection.
"We have an opportunity to do something remarkable with this," said Rouett Abouzelof, infection control coordinator at Primary Children's Medical Center.
David Gessel, vice president of government relations and legal affairs for the Utah Hospital Association, said hospitals are "willing to support this and be a team player with this. We want to move the ball forward."
Email:mcortez@ksl.com
