Recently the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released new data about rates of hospital acquired infections. While research indicates that central line infections are largely preventable, the CDC estimates that there were about 41,000 central line infections in U.S. hospitals during 2009, and that about 25% of patients who acquired such infections died from them.

According to the government data, seven Georgia hospitals including four in the metro Atlanta area, performed worse than the national average. The four Atlanta area hospitals included Emory Midtown, Northside Hospital, Piedmont Henry Hospital and Southern Regional Medical Center.

This information may be important to Georgia patients and consumers of healthcare. Georgia, unlike many other states, has not required hospitals to publicly disclose hospital acquired infection rates. For many Georgians, this is the first look at how individual hospitals compare to each other and how Georgia hospitals compare to the nation.

The data collected only reflects infections acquired during the first three months of 2011 and only considers infections acquired in intensive care units. Some hospitals and doctors are criticizing the data made public by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as not being a true reflection of hospital safety and providing inaccurate or incomplete information to patients. However, many hospitals and doctors believe that the information provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the best that is currently available and is useful in preventing future infection deaths.

Our Georgia medical malpractice attorneys extend our condolences to those who have recently lost a loved one to a hospital acquired infection and our best wishes for full and fast recoveries to those suffering from such infections.