ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The standardized infection ratio (SIR) evaluates individual publicly reported health care-associated infections, but it may not assess overall performance. METHODS: We piloted an infection composite score (ICS) in 82 hospitals of a single health system. The ICS is a combined score for central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, colon and abdominal hysterectomy surgical site infections, and hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia and Clostridium difficile infections. Individual facility ICSs were calculated by normalizing each of the 6 SIR events to the system SIR for baseline and performance periods (ICSib and ICSip, respectively). A hospital ICSib reflected its baseline performance compared with system baseline, whereas a ICSip provided information of its outcome changes compared with system baseline. RESULTS: Both the ICSib (baseline 2013) and ICSip (performance 2014) were calculated for 63 hospitals (reporting at least 4 of the 6 event types). The ICSip improved in 36 of 63 (57.1%) hospitals in 2014 when compared with the ICSib in 2013. The ICSib 2013 median was 0.96 (range, 0.13-2.94) versus the 2014 ICSip median of 0.92 (range, 0-6.55). Variation was more evident in hospitals with ≤100 beds. The system performance score (ICSsp) in 2014 was 0.95, a 5% improvement compared with 2013. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed ICS may help large health systems and state hospital associations better evaluate key infectious outcomes, comparing them with historic and concurrent performance of peers.
