Even as patient acuity climbed over the last several years, hospitals posted notable gains in mortality and reductions in two major hospital-acquired infections, a new Vizient report found.
The Jan. 22 report is based on an analysis of the Vizient Clinical Data Base, which includes data from more than 1,000 hospitals nationwide. It compares trends from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2025 across measures of acuity, mortality performance and select hospital-acquired infections.
“These improvements occurred during a period marked by workforce shortages, supply chain instability and rising case complexity, signaling that the system’s quality infrastructure is stronger, more adaptive and more scalable than often recognized,” the report said
Three notable findings:
1. Patient acuity increased 5% between 2019 and 2025, with hospitals’ case mix index rising from 1.71 to 1.80.
2. The mortality index — which compares a hospital’s observed to expected deaths — decreased 33%, from 0.97 in 2019 to 0.65 in 2025. This trend reflects hospitals’ improvements in clinical reliability, care processes and operational discipline, according to the report.
3. The rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections and central line-associated bloodstream infections per 1,000 cases declined by 23% and 22%, respectively.
The gains come as health systems have worked to rebuild safety culture and reestablish quality routines disrupted during the pandemic. Vizient framed the improvements as evidence of a stronger quality infrastructure, but warned that staffing shortages will continue to lengthen wait times and delay diagnoses — pressures that could test whether hospitals can sustain progress as demand and case complexity rise.
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