1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
"Deadly Infections" by Douglas Podolsky, Senior Editor Nancy Metcalf, Senior Program Editor Kimberly Kleman, Deputy Editorial Director, Editor in Chief, Consumer Reports Abbe Herzig, Statistical Program Leader Jonea Gurwitt, Senior Researcher.
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports.
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
We used computer-assisted reporting to analyze newly released hospital data to show that although some hospitals are doing an excellent job of protecting patients from often deadly bloodstream infections caused by large intravenous catheters used in hospital intensive care units, others are not. Our analysis enabled us to name the hospitals that are the top and bottom performers in 10 states where hospitals must publicly report their infection data. We found that far too many hospitals fail to lower the rate of these bloodstream infections despite the availability of a simple life-saving checklist proven to cut hospital-acquired infection rates to zero or close to it. We provide patients and family members with a list of steps they can take to protect against hospital-associated bloodstream infections.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
We used publicly available infection data posted on each state's health department or hospital association Web site, as well as data that hospitals submit voluntarily to the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Some states provided us with data beyond what they posted on their Web sites after we made requests by email or phone calls to people in the state health department. We did not submit any FOI requests.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
We conducted around 50 interviews for this article. They included officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, American Hospital Association, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, state health officials, hospital patient-safety and infection-control officers, critical care physicians, insurance industry representatives, medical associations, patients' rights advocates, consumer groups, and patients who said they or a family member had suffered a hospital-acquired bloodstream infection
6. Results (if any).
Five months after our article was published, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services adopted new regulations requiring hospitals to report their rates of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections to the CDC. Each hospital's infection rate information will be publicly posted later in 2011 on a federal Web site.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Keep checking the federal government's Web site for hospital infection rates required by new regulations. Meanwhile, see whether your state publishes hospital infection reports. Links to free state reporting sites are available there. Additional information on state infection reporting and infection prevention is available at Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project. Subscribers to Consumer Report's health Web site can compare more than 3,600 hospitals on a range of characteristics, including bloodstream-infection data where available. Find bloodstream-infection rates and other data derived from hospitals' voluntary submissions to the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. When requesting hospital interviews for your stories, ask to talk with their patient-safety and infection control officers and talk about their published rates and how they could be improved.