Patients are more likely to suffer health care-associated infections at urban hospitals than at hospitals in rural areas, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Researchers studied the performance of urban and rural hospitals in the Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program (HACRP), which penalizes hospitals when patients suffer health care-associated infections.
Researchers found that 14 percent of hospitals in rural areas received penalties for infections compared to 26 percent of urban facilities. Hospital-acquired infections include surgical site infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
If you suffered an infection at a hospital, it could be a result of medical malpractice. Contact the medical malpractice lawyers at O’Connor, Acciani & Levy for a free consultation to find out if you are entitled to compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
The HHS report also analyzed rural and urban facilities participating in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program and found rural hospitals excel at care coordination.
Part of the reason for this is that rural facilities have smaller networks of hospitals. For instance, some rural areas have hospitals, nursing homes and outpatient hospitals that are all on one campus.
The close proximity of all of these facilities contributes to greater collaboration between doctors and other medical professionals.
Urban facilities were often outperformed by rural hospitals when it comes to patient experience, an increasingly important part of performance assessment for hospitals.
One negative for rural hospitals is that they are being outperformed by urban hospitals when it comes to readmission rates. The HHS report found that rural facilities had a readmission rate of 79 percent compared to 76 percent for urban hospitals.
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