CDC: Arizona sees drop in health care-associated infections
Mar 4, 2016, 5:31 AM | Updated: 8:48 am
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
PHOENIX — Fewer patients are getting infections while receiving treatment at Arizona hospitals, a report from the Centers for Disease Control said.
“Arizona has seen a 47 percent decline in some blood stream infections that occur after a large IV catheter is placed inside a large vein,” Dr. Cliff McDonald with the CDC said.
The agency’s Vital Signs Report said Arizona’s results just barely trailed the national average decrease of 50 percent in the same kind of infections.
However, the report said Arizona could improve elsewhere.
“Catheter-associated urinary tract infections have only gone down 1 percent in Arizona, and MRSA blood stream infections have only gone down 1 percent,” McDonald said. “There’s so many of those infections that we really need to do a lot more in that area.”
McDonald said he hopes the report encourages those in the medical field to be mindful of infecting patients.
“To prevent the transmission of these antibiotic-resistant-threat bacteria by good hand hygiene and taking other hygienic practices to prevent transmission, and by doing better anabolic stewardship, because anabolics can both harm and help patients,” he said.
