Is your Midlands hospital a hotbed for infections?
How do Midlands area hospitals compare when it comes to being safe and avoiding infections?
A new ranking released by Consumer Reports rated more than 3,000 U.S. hospitals to show which do a good job of avoiding infections – and which do not.
Every year, an estimated 648,000 people in the United States develop infections during a hospital stay, resulting in about 75,000 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Consumer Report ratings are based on data hospitals reported to the CDC between October 2013 and September 2014, the most recent public data available.
In South Carolina, 53 hospitals were given a safety score and a rating for avoiding infections. Here’s how Midlands hospitals ranked. Note that a high safety score does not mean that the hospital had a high rate of avoiding infections.
Palmetto Health Richland (Columbia)
- Safety score: 61
- Avoiding infections: Average
Providence Hospital (Columbia)
- Safety score: 59
- Avoiding infections: Below average
Newberry County Memorial Hospital (Newberry)
- Safety score: 58
- Avoiding infections: Average
Palmetto Health Baptist (Columbia)
- Safety score: 50
- Avoiding infections: Below average
Lexington Medical Center (West Columbia)
- Safety score: 55
- Avoiding infections: Average
Kershaw Health (Camden)
- Safety score: 49
- Avoiding infections: Below average
Tuomey Healthcare System (Sumter)
- Safety score: 41
- Avoiding infections: Below average
Regional Medical Center (Orangeburg)
- Safety score: 39
- Avoiding infections: Below average
How are the scores and ratings determined?
Avoiding infections: This rating is a composite for avoiding surgical-site infections, infections stemming from MRSA and C.difficile, as well as infections related to central-line catheters and urinary catheters. The rating is on a scale of best, above average, average, below average and worst.
Safety score: This is a summary of five categories that relate to hospital safety: avoiding infections, avoiding re-admissions, communicating about medications and discharge, appropriate use of chest and abdominal scanning, and avoiding mortality (medical and surgical). The score is on a 100-point scale. A hospital would score a 100 if it earned the highest possible score in all measures and would score 1 if it earned the lowest scores in all measures. Each of the five domains is weighted equally. Each is worth 20 points out of 100.
This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 5:54 PM.