The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on February 7, 2012 that its Hospital Compare website now includes data on central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) occurring in hospital intensive care units.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 41,000 CLABSIs occurred in 2009 in U.S. hospitals.  Studies show that 25% of those who acquire a CLABSI die from the infection, according to CMS. 

On August 1, 2011, CMS issued a final rule that revised policies and payment rates for general acute care hospitals under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS).  Under that final rule,  hospitals with intensive care units that participate in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program (HIQRP), which allows hospitals that successfully report quality metrics to CMS to receive a higher annual update to their payment rates, began submitting CLABSI data to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network in January 2011. The data now on the Hospital Compare site reflects hospital performance during the first quarter of 2011.  New data will be posted quarterly going forward.

CMS reports that the Hospital Compare site is one of its most popular web tools, receiving around 1 million views per month.  The website provides data on over 4,700 U.S. hospitals, including information about process of care measures, outcome of care measures, use of medical imaging, surveys of patient experiences, and patient safety measures. The new infection data is located under the patient safety measures tab of each hospital.

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