According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, healthcare-associated infections are one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Wednesday that the government should do more to help prevent infections that patients acquire in hospitals while being treated for other conditions.
In a report commissioned by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the GAO recommended that the government increase efforts to guide hospitals to prevent infections. The Department of Health and Human Services should identify priorities for preventing infections from a list developed by the CDC.
The GAO also said HHS should do a better job of collecting data on hospital-acquired infections.
For the study, GAO interviewed officials and reviewed documents from several federal agencies.
The CDC has 13 guidelines for hospitals on infection control and prevention, recommending almost 1,200 practices for preventing hospital-acquired infections and related adverse events. CDC officials have made some efforts to promote implementation of the practices, but no clear priority exists on which practices are best. HHS should prioritize the guidelines, factoring in that cost and organizational obstacles may play a part in what can be most easily implemented, the GAO said.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Joint Commission have standards for preventing infections, but they are far fewer than what CDC recommends, the GAO said.
The GAO found that multiple agencies under HHS collect data on infections, but those processes vary and the data is not integrated. Creating links across the databases could help the government better understand what causes the infections, the report said.
HHS officials acknowledged the lack of data coordination, but said the data is collected for very different purposes.
The GAO study follows CMS’ recent announcement to expand the list of preventable conditions for which Medicare won't pay if a beneficiary experiences them as a result of a hospital stay.