Infection-Control Report Cards — Securing Patient Safety

For many of us, the specter of report cards conjures up anxiety dreams. Nevertheless, public report cards have infiltrated many industries — airlines and banking, for instance — and various levels of government, and health care appears to be next. The belief that hospitals reporting lower infection rates are safer and that informed consumers will obtain safer care has driven many U.S. states to consider legislation requiring report cards on nosocomial infections.Advocates of public reporting have been spurred on by the occurrence of nosocomial infections in 5 to 10 percent of hospitalized patients; increasing rates of antibiotic resistance; press . . .