Hospitals struggling to find ways to curb locally-acquired infections now have a new tool at their disposal: Benchmarking software that allows officials to compare infection rates with similar hospitals around the country.

The benchmarking tool is part of the MedMined software platform developed by Cardinal Health, a Dublin, Ohio-based provider of healthcare technology services. The tool charts the occurrence of each hospital-acquired infection (HAI) in a hospital by unit, determines over time whether a specific unit's infection rate is rising or dropping, and compares those risk-adjusted rates to peer units in similar hospitals.

"Hospitals are finding value in the ability to compare their results with their peers," said J. Michael Horsely, president of the Alabama Hospital Association. "When hospitals know which area needs the most focus and which hospitals perform best for that type of unit, we can open a dialogue for improvement that raises performance across all hospitals."

A total of 46 hospitals in Alabama are using the benchmarking tool, which was launched by Cardinal Health in February as an additional feature to the MedMined product. Hospitals using the tool can voluntarily allow other hospitals to see their results and see results posted by other hospitals that choose to allow that information to be disclosed. On the other hand, hospitals choosing to remain anonymous won't be able to see specific hospital names in benchmarking results.

Members of the Alabama Hospital Association's Quality Task Force and infection control specialists with the state's Association for Professionals in Infection Control (APIC) worked for more than a year with Cardinal Health's MedMined team  to develop the benchmarking tool. The groups met Tuesday in a forum in conjunction with the Alabama Hospital Quality Initiative - a partnership involving MedMined officials, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama and the Alabama Hospital Association - to evaluate the service.

"The real benefit from the benchmarking tool is in knowing how other hospitals perform and sharing knowledge and best practices to ensure continued improvement," said Benja Morgan, infection control and employee health manager at East Alabama Medical Center.

"Understanding a true hospital-wide view of HAIs is the first step to improving infection prevention," added Patrick Hymel, MD, vice president and general manager of Cardinal Health's MedMined services. "The MedMined benchmarking tool is a big step forward in allowing best practices in infection prevention to be accurately identified and rapidly shared among a community of hospitals."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2 million hospital patients each year contract a hospital-acquired infection (HAI), leading to 90,000 deaths as a result.