Discoverying Hospital Infection Rates?

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As I did my research preparing for my BHR (was also considering a THR at the time as well), one of my concerns was finding a facility that had a very low rate of infection. I'm fairly blunt, so I asked each of the three doctors I consulted about the locations they practice, Hopkins, Union Memorial an dAnne Arndel Med Center. Each told me about the same thing "we have the lowest infection rate in the area, and other facilities actually send their problem cases to us."

Now nearly two weeks after my surgery (I am 100% infection free, thank God) I am hearing from nurses, PT personnel, and a host of others in the medical community that some of these facilities I was considering are great and some actually have quite a problem with staph.

How does a surgery candidate discovery with some accuracy the infection rate of a given facility? I am in the US, and I know we are a bit anal with disclosing our medical records...
 
You need numbers when asking about infection rates and about good/bad outcome rates. Infection rates are good if they are below 1%, i.e. 0.5 or something like. A good surgeon will know these things and be ready to disclose them but he will wait to be asked! You can find these and other such issues discussed in How to choose a surgeon and a prosthesis.

Actually, ALL hospitals have a 'problem' with staph. It's called MRSA - methycillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. Staph is a normal commensal in the human body - we all carry it in our alimentary tracts from nose to perineum! The problem comes when it begins to reproduce outside of the gut and especially when it gets into critical areas like new surgical incision or pressure sores, burns and such. Go with the info about the infection rates and you should be okay.

However, if a surgeon seems reluctant to discuss
specifics such as numbers, I'd find myself someone else who will!
 
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