Bloodstream Infection Rates Vary Widely at Metro Atlanta Hospitals ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - A new report shows a wide discrepancy in how Atlanta-area hospitals report serious, often deadly bloodstream infections. But as WABE's Jim Burress reports, the figures are far from comprehensive.

Hope you never need a so-called "central line"- a large IV used in serious medical treatment. But if you do, your chances of getting an infection vary widely based on what hospital you choose.

That's according to a newly-published Consumer Reports Health study. But the analysis only ranks 12 Atlanta-area hospitals. Senior editor Nancy Metcalfe says that's because not all hospitals provide data:

"Maybe they think filling out the forms is too much trouble. Maybe their infection rate isn't so great. Maybe they just don't feel like they don't have to do it."

They don't have to. Twenty-seven states require hospitals report central line infection rates. Georgia is not one.

Of the Atlanta-area hospitals that do report, WellStar Kennestone was best at a rate 61 percent better than the national average. On the other end of the spectrum was DeKalb Medical Center at Hillendale. It reported an infection rate 858 percent worse than the national average.

DeKalb Medical's CEO Eric Norwood says that percentage can be misleading:

"If, for example, you had a small hospital that had one heart attack during the year, and that one patient died, then that would account for a 100% mortality rate."

Norwood didn't have specific numbers, but said the hospital scrutinizes every central line infection.

And then there are the roughly two-thirds of Atlanta hospitals that don't report to the agency used by Consumer Reports. That doesn't mean the data aren't available, says Piedmont Healthcare Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leigh Hamby.

"So the absence of data in those reports should not be -- it should not be concluded that that data is not being reported somewhere else [click here for Piedmont Hospital's self-reported results] or that that data is somehow being hidden because it's not good levels of performance."

Still, Dr. Hamby agrees giving patients information about hospital performance is a good thing, even if reporting standards have a ways to go. Jim Burress, WABE News.

For more information on the Consumer Reports Health/Leapfrog Group rankings, click here (note: some services require subscription).
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