Over a Quarter of California Hospitals with Worse-Than-Expected Infection Rates

Last month, Kaiser Health News published information about their analyses of states with a high percentage of worse-than-expected infection rates. The analysis looked at data from six different categories of infections published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from over 3,000 hospitals nationwide. According to the report, California was one of 13 states with worse-than-expected infection rates with 28% of its hospitals falling into this category.
 
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a major concern in hospitals across California and the nation.  These infections can take the lives of patients, increase the length of time a patient needs to be treated and dramatically increases healthcare costs.
 
According to the CDC, about one in 25 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection on any given day. There were an estimated 722,000 HAIs in U.S acute care hospitals in 2011 and about 75,000 hospital patients with HAIs died during their hospitalizations. More than half of all HAIs occurred outside of the intensive care unit.
 
“HAIs can be caused by a number of factors, including contaminated medical devices, poor hand hygiene, ineffective surface disinfection procedures and indoor air quality problems,” said Jason Dobranic, Ph.D., Vice President of Microbiology and Life Sciences at LA Testing and EMSL Analytical, Inc.  “LA Testing can help healthcare providers prevent HAIs through air, water and surface monitoring for microbial pathogens.  Testing can identify fungi and bacteria that may be present in a hospital or other healthcare environment. It is also effective for assessing disinfection procedures and can be used to identify the source of an outbreak if one has already occurred.”
 
LA Testing recently sponsored a three-part video series about healthcare-associated infections that can be seen at:
Part 1 http://youtu.be/FwO9oUFFIps
Part 2 http://youtu.be/UaOGwK35Stk
Part 3 http://youtu.be/DLQX2f2niFk
 
To learn more about testing for environmental pathogens in hospitals and other healthcare environments, please visit www.LATesting.com, email info@LATesting.com or call (800) 755-1794. 
 
About LA Testing
LA Testing is California’s leading laboratory for indoor air quality testing of asbestos, mold, lead, VOCs, formaldehyde, soot, char, ash and smoke damage, particulates and other chemicals.  In addition, LA Testing offers a full range of air sampling and investigative equipment to professionals and the general public. LA Testing maintains an extensive list of accreditations including: AIHA LAP LLC., AIHA ELLAP, AIHA EMLAP and AIHA IHLAP, NVLAP, State of California, State of Hawaii Department of Health and other states.  LA Testing, along with the EMSL Analytical, Inc. network, has multiple laboratories throughout California including South Pasadena, Garden Grove, San Leandro and San Diego.
 

Contact Information

Joseph Frasca

Senior Vice President of Marketing

LA Testing

(1) (856) 303-2503

Contact via E-mail