Among 16 illnesses for which mortality rates were reported in the 2013 Hospital Performance Report, the following eight conditions saw the most drastic declines between 2008 and 2013.
- Septicemia — mortality rate decreased from 18.8 percent to 12.2 percent
- Pneumonia (aspiration) — 10 percent to 7 percent
- Heart attack (medical management) — 10.2 percent to 8.1 percent
- Kidney failure (acute) — 5.1 percent to 3.4 percent
- Stroke — 5.1 percent to 3.7 percent
- Colorectal procedures — 3 percent to 2 percent
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — 1 percent to 0.6 percent
- Kidney and urinary tract infections — 0.8 percent to 0.5 percent
Among 13 conditions for which readmission rates were reported on, the following eight saw the most drastic declines between 2008 and 2013.
- Congestive heart failure — readmission rate decreased from 27.2 percent to 23.5 percent
- Pneumonia (aspiration) — 25 percent to 21.5 percent
- Kidney failure (acute) — 24 percent to 21.4 percent
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — 22.8 percent to 20.8 percent
- Kidney and urinary tract infections — 17.6 percent to 15.9 percent
- Pneumonia (infectious) — 17 percent to 16.1 percent
- Stroke — 14.7 percent to 13.9 percent
- Abnormal heartbeat — 15 percent to 14.5 percent
Only one condition — chest pain — saw a considerable increase in readmissions from 11.6 percent to 13.5 percent, according to the report.
Executive Director of PHC4 Joe Martin attributed the decline in readmissions to improved quality of care and hospitals working to help lower overall health care costs.
More articles on infection control:
Top 10 infection control stories, Dec. 15-19
The 10 most popular hand hygiene stories of 2014
45% of hospitals have electronic surveillance systems to spot infections
