After several years of delay, Illinois has begun posting hospital infection data on its "hospital report card" website, including facilities in the greater St. Louis area.
State officials say the website — www.healthcarereportcard.illinois.gov — will benefit not only the consumer but also the health care industry.
"The hospital report card is to educate people and help them with their decisions on where to go for health care and also help hospitals learn from each other," said Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
So far, Illinois reports rates for only central line associated bloodstream infections in hospital intensive care units that occurred last year. Central lines are catheters that deliver fluids and medicines to the patient.
The data include several, though not all, Metro East hospitals, including those in the cities of Alton, Maryville, Belleville and Granite City. The hospitals appear to be performing better than the national average for central line bloodstream infection rates, reporting either one or zero infections for the year 2009.
The Illinois Hospital Report Card Act took effect in January 2004, but the original legislation was flawed — calling for the reporting measures to follow federal guidelines that did not exist.
That procedural snag led to the Illinois Legislature's passage of an amended statute in 2005, but the state's fiscal problems during that year further delayed implementation of the law.
The project was funded in 2006, and after various pilot projects and technical development, the Hospital Report Card Web Site was launched in November 2009.
Under the law, Illinois hospitals are required to report a variety of performance measures and other data to the state, including the central line associated bloodstream infections.
Consumers can look up a particular hospital or a ZIP code on the website and review information about the facility.
Earlier this year, the state published a separate report containing hospital infection rates for 2009 and posted it on the website. It also posted a report that identified the specific organisms involved in the state's central line associated bloodstream infections in 2009.
Illinois plans to continuously update its website with new information, Arnold said. "We are in the process of trying to get some additional data. We're hoping to have surgical-site infection data by the end of the year."
