Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Consumer Reports ranks Centennial Hills as best hospital in region at avoiding infections

Centennial Hills Hospital is a local leader in preventing potentially deadly infections, according to a Consumer Reports analysis of the region’s medical facilities released Wednesday. Several other local hospitals didn’t do as well.

The hospital in the valley’s far northwest fared best in the study, which looked at the rate of infections including MRSA, C. difficile, central-line, catheter-urinary tract and surgical site.

Seven other local hospitals — MountainView, North Vista, St. Rose Dominican-San Martin Campus, St. Rose Dominican-Siena Campus, Summerlin, Valley and University Medical Center — received lower overall marks.

Ranking near the middle of infection avoidance were Desert Spring Hospital Medical Center, Mesa View Regional Hospital, Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center, Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center, St. Rose Dominican-Rose de Lima Campus and Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.

Consumer Reports expanded its ratings this year to include MRSA and C. difficile, which combined kill more than 35,000 patients each year in the United States. The publication used Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from more than 3,000 hospitals between October 2013 and September 2014, the most recent available, to produce the ratings.

“High rates for MRSA and C. diff can be a red flag that a hospital isn’t following the best practices in preventing infections and prescribing antibiotics,” Doris Peter, director of Consumer Reports’ Health Ratings Center, said in a statement.

Centennial Hills Hospital, located near Durango Drive and U.S. 95, was one of nine hospitals nationwide that received the near-perfect ratings across all infection categories; however, the analysis noted that the data may be skewed because of low patient volume.

Other key takeaways from the report:

Valley Hospital received the the lowest rating for MRSA infections, meaning it was more than 100 percent worse than the national baseline set by the CDC based on historical data. University Medical Center, MountainView Hospital, North Vista Hospital, Summerlin Hospital and Spring Valley Hospital received the second-lowest rating for avoiding MRSA infections.

The majority of Southern Nevada hospitals received the second-lowest rating for avoiding C. difficile infections. Those medical facilities included Desert Springs Hospital, MountainView Hospital, Southern Hills Hospital, St. Rose Dominican Hospital-Rose de Lima Campus, St. Rose Dominican Hospital-San Martin Campus, St. Rose Dominican Hospital-Siena Campus, Summerlin Hospital, Sunrise Hospital and Valley Hospital.

No Southern Nevada hospitals received low ratings for avoiding central-line infections. All scored average or better.

The ratings weren’t all pretty for the region’s hospitals, but Southern Nevada residents can take solace in this finding: Some of the nation’s most high-profile hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, John Hopkins Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, received low ratings for avoiding MRSA, C. difficile or both infections.

In a statement released in response to the ratings, University Medical Center officials said the hospital’s new leadership has made offering the highest level of quality of care its top priority. “Our most recent quarterly data show specific improvement in catheter-associated urinary tract infection rates,” UMC spokeswoman Danita Cohen said in the statement. “And a multidisciplinary team of nursing, administration and medical staff have promoted active campaigns for avoiding infections by incorporating best clinical practices, such as multidisciplinary clinical rounding, resulting in improved outcomes.”

Dr. Robert Pretzlaff, chief medical officer of Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, said that recent progress made by the hospitals may not be reflected in the data. In recent months, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals have improved in a number of the categories analyzed by Consumer Reports, including central-line, catheter-urinary tract and surgical site infections, he said.

“If the data were current, we would look better,” Pretzlaff said.

Requests for comment to the other hospital in the region were not returned as of press time.

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