The Iowa Healthcare Collaborative recently released information on infections in hospitals. It’s the third year for the report and collaborative spokesperson Dr. Tom Evans says there’s pretty good news for the state. Evans says Iowa’s infection rates are “actually pretty good” compared to other states.

He says there were some slight increases in three surgical site infections, but he says they were “very slight” increases. Evans says preventing infection is an ongoing battle. He says they are always amending certain surgical techniques, and changing the doses and time that antibiotics are given around surgery has also helped.

Evans says the collaborative has all the information on infections on its website along with other information. Evans says they have over 74 measures where you can compare the performance of hospitals to become “better informed consumers.

You can see the information on the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative’s website at: www.ihconline.org.