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New York City puts hospital error data online

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, September 19, 2007

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the nation's largest public health system, began publicly releasing data recently on infection and death rates at its 11 hospitals.
The move came in response to widespread concern about deadly, preventable, and costly hospital-acquired conditions and pressure to crack open the shrouded culture of many hospitals.
According to the New York Times, the move is a bold step in an industry that has long resisted transparency.
The posting of such information was a result of an initiative by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has made public health a centerpiece of his administration, and by the hospital corporation's recent focus on improving patient safety.
In posting the safety and performance information on the hospital corporation's Web site, www.nyc.gov/hhc, the public hospitals, which treat 1.3 million patients a year, are far ahead of the industry, the story says.
Consumer groups and other experts say that because of resistance from the state's powerful hospital industry, compliance with the new disclosure law has lagged behind similar efforts in other states, the article says.
The New York Times also cites the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) projection that 1.7 million patients nationwide would get an infection during a hospital stay this year, and that of those, 99,000, or about 270 per day, would die. The CDC estimate the cost of treating such infections at more than $30 billion a year.
To read full story click here.
Source: "New York City Puts Hospital Error Data Online," The New York Times Published September 7, 2007.

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