CDC has made its Web-based infection reporting system, called the National Healthcare Safety Network, available to all U.S. hospitals, Modern Healthcare reports.
NHSN lets facilities track their own data and infection rates over time, and it allows CDC to look at national infection data trends.
More than 600 participants in 45 states currently use NHSN, and CDC expects nearly 1,000 facilities to join the network, Denise Cardo, director of CDC's Division of Health Care Quality Promotion, said.
The infection-tracking system will allow more hospitals to help prevent hospital-acquired infections, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infections, Cardo said.
Public reporting laws in California, Colorado, New York state, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia already have designated NHSN as the mandatory infection-tracking system (Lubell, Modern Healthcare, 6/28).