Anti-Septic? Hospital Investigated For High Blood Infection Rate Receives Award

Published Mar 31, 2011 12:00 AM

Despite West Anaheim Medical Center being under state and federal investigation for an alarmingly high rate of blood infections, the Southern California hospital has been named one of the Top 100 facilities in the United States, reports the OC Register.

For the second time, Thomson Reuters, a business information services company, put West Anaheim on the list based on federal data including death rates, safety, profitability and patient satisfaction. For the category of medium-sized community hospitals, West Anaheim was among 20 winners out of a field of 1,042 hospitals for 2011. "It speaks high volume that we do provide the highest quality of care," said Lex Reddy, chief executive officer for owner Prime Healthcare Services. "Prime has always had one or two hospitals on the list. It's the politics and the unions that have the issue."

This commendation comes months after an analysis of 2008 data reportedly found that Medicare patients treated at West Anaheim and 11 other Prime Healthcare hospitals had a septicemia rate of 23 percent, while the national average is 4.8 percent, notes the OC Register.Prime officials, who deny fraud and attribute the high infection rate to treating sicker patients, say the union is seeking to extort them.

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Anti-Septic? Hospital Investigated For High Blood Infection Rate Receives Award