Tyrone Hospital has implemented procedures to deal with a new state requirement which requires all hospitals in Pennsylvania to report data on institutionally-acquired infection to an outside state agency.
The new requirement is the first of its type in the United States and will require hospitals in the state to report information by June 30, 2004 and then once each quarter. The information will go to the state’s cost containment council and be available to the public.
“We’ve put a system in place regarding the tracking of data for infections people acquire while in the hospital,” said Theresa Yanchetz, the director of marketing at Tyrone Hospital. “We had to deal with the type of information to send and the format PHC4 requested.
“What we did was make some modifications in one of our systems in order to put it in the proper format,” said Yanchetz.
“I think it is important to note all hospitals including Tyrone have reviewed programs which are in place and taken steps to deal with infections,” Yanchetz told The Daily Herald. “What’s different now is this is the first time we’ve had to report the information to an external organization.
“There is some work involved in this process. It’s important to separate the difference between infections which people get outside the hospital but only become apparent once they are in the hospital,” said Yanchetz. “This can happen because of different incubation periods associated with different types of infections,” said Yanchetz. “We have to make sure what we’re reporting is a hospital-acquired infection.”
Earlier in the process, The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania had wanted a delay as to when hospitals would start tracking the data. According to its web site a representative appeared before the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council early last month to present views and concerns regarding the new requirements. Paula A. Bussard, a senior vice president with the association, said there was value to public reporting but she expressed a number of concerns regarding the collection and reporting of noscomial or hospital-acquired infection data.
According to Bussard’s statement, the hospitals and health systems in Pennsylvania had filed a notice seeking an alternative dispute resolution process to present concerns, the clinical basis for those concerns, and suggestions on how best to proceed in collecting data on nosocomial infections in order to improve patient care and contain health care costs.
In her statement, Bussard said the data should be able to provide value to the public, purchasers and clinicians and be able to done consistently and in a cost-effective manner. She also indicated it should reflect currently accepted national standards as well as serve the best interest of the patients and the public. She also noted such data should provide meaningful data for use in improving practices within hospitals and health systems.
One of the reasons the association had sought a delay was its belief some facilities might not be totally prepared to handle the new burden of collecting and reporting such data in the best manner possible. The association had expressed concern the amount of time when hospitals were first informed of the new requirement and the starting period of when data had to begin being collected was not sufficient for some facilities to be ready to compile the data accurately and in the proper format.
Bussard indicated the new requirements would result in increased costs to hospitals since it would require additional staff and other resources in order for it to be in compliance. Bussard told the council, preliminary findings from a survey indicated it would take additional personnel beyond current hospital budgets to comply with the new nosocomial infection data reporting requirements.
Bussard’s entire statement and other details on the issue can be found on the Hospital & Healthsystem Association Web site at www.haponline.org.
Eventually, a compromise was reached to cover a fraction of the types of infections the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council would like to have tracked by the hospitals. Starting this year, facilities will be required to track four different types of infections. Originally, the council wanted all types of infections reported but the hospital association had objected the data might not be meaningful while requiring an added expense.
The council will ultimately require hospitals to report on more than a dozen types of infections to meet the new reporting standards.
