ALBANY — The rate of hospital infections has increased in New York and it’s a trend that could indicate many more infections are occurring than can be tracked, according to the lead author of a statewide hospital report.

An association of health care plans in a new report found that about 3,200 of 1.45 million cases resulted in a hospital-acquired infection in New York, up from about 2,900 out of 1.48 million the year before.

The number appears small, but “that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Bruce Boissonnault, the lead author of the study and president of the Niagara Health Quality Coalition.

“I would say it’s a small fraction of the infections,” he said. “For example, many people do not show symptoms of an infection until they’re discharged and those patients would not be in that sample (used in the study).”

The risk of infection is also a growing concern because it’s the first time a health trend has worsened since the Niagara Health Quality Coalition started conducting the study six years ago.

Overall, state hospitals are improving: New Yorkers are less likely to die from having a hospital procedure than they were a few years ago. In 2002, hospitals had a mortality rate of 8.5 percent for eight inpatient procedures the study evaluated. That dropped to 7.4 percent in 2006.

State Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said since 2007, all New York’s acute care hospitals have been required to report certain hospital-acquired infections, including central line and colon and cardiac surgical site infections. This year, hip replacement surgery was added to the list. He said they will review the coalition’s findings.

“While it may be possible that infection rates are getting worse, it may also be true that hospitals are more vigilant at reporting infections, and that’s good news for patients,” Hammond said. The department plans to use its information to educate providers and patients about problems and identify quality control improvements to replicate statewide, he said.

The 2008 New York State Hospital Report Card is a consumer tool for comparing hospital performance on specific procedures and specialties.

The card rated all the state’s 243 acute care hospitals on 31 common procedures, treatments and ailments. In many cases it evaluated the likelihood of death depending on what procedure was conducted at which hospital.

“The kind of information that they (the coalition) put out is the kind of information that consumers need and the state should be doing it,” said Blair Horner, of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The ratings use a star system, with one star indicating a hospital has below average performance and three stars above average performance. The system uses federal measures for hospitals as a benchmark.

Just because a hospital has a stellar reputation for one procedure doesn’t mean it will excel in other areas, Boissonnault said. A one star rating doesn’t mean New Yorkers should start changing doctors either, he said.

“Just because you go to a hospital that’s a three star hospital, that doesn’t mean you’re going to have a good outcome,” Boissonnault said. “You know about the outcomes of other people. So a one star rating does not mean this is a bad hospital. In fact, a two star hospital in New York state is pretty good.”

The report card described the volume of procedures handled by a facility, which Boissonnault says is an indicator of experience. For example, patients having a hip transplant may want to use the site to determine which nearby hospital tends to perform that procedure regularly.

The study included abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, hip replacement, coronary artery bypass grafts, esophageal resections and the success of vaginal births after Caesarean section delivery.

Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services created 14 “chartered value exchanges” around the country. Under the program, the organizations agree to follow voluntary guidelines on health care matters in exchange for receiving Medicare information about the quality of care that physicians provide to patients.

The idea is to promote transparency in the quality of hospital care.
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On the Net: Niagara Health Quality Coalition, http://www.myHealthFinder.com