The CDC’s healthcare-associated infections dataset, updated July 27, includes performance data for five types of infections collected through the National Healthcare Safety Network. The HAI measures show how often patients in a particular hospital contract certain infections during their inpatient stay, when compared to similar hospitals.
The CDC calculates and publishes a standardized infection ratio for each HAI by state, which may take into account care location, number of patients with an existing infection, lab methods, hospital affiliation with a medical school, hospital bed size, patient age and patient health. The measures apply to all patients treated in acute care hospitals, including adult, pediatric, neonatal, Medicare and non-Medicare patients, according to the CMS data dictionary.
Data for this ranking was collected from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021.
Five states with the lowest C. difficile rates:
- Alaska — 0.298
- Tennessee — 0.322
- Virginia — 0.353
- Florida — 0.359
- Nevada — 0.37
Five states with the highest C. difficile rates:
- Wisconsin — 0.65
- Massachusetts — 0.667
- Wyoming — 0.674
- West Virginia — 0.769
- New Hampshire — 0.791
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