The Commonwealth Fund has announced an update to its website, WhyNotTheBest.org. The site, which compares hospitals for quality of care, will now include data on the incidence of central line-associated bloodstream infections and hospital quality data at the county level.

WhyNotTheBest.org is developed and maintained by the Commonwealth Fund (CWF), in partnership with the Leapfrog Group and Consumers Unions.

[See also: Infection control software market poised rapid growth.]

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 248,000 bloodstream infections occur in U.S. hospitals each year, with a large proportion of them central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI).

Central line-associated bloodstream infections are preventable and are usually serious, causing a prolonged hospital stay and increased risk of mortality, according to CDC.

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology has urged the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to move healthcare-associated infection surveillance from a Stage 3 meaningful use optional consideration to a Stage 2 quality reporting core requirement.

[See also: Quality improvement program demonstrates meaningful use.]

According to CWF, WhyNotTheBest.org compares U.S. hospitals on evidence-based care, patient experience, readmission, mortality rates, and costs. It also compares a hospital's performance with peer organizations and national benchmarks.

The site also provides case studies from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Sentara Healthcare, OSF HealthCare, and Johns Hopkins Medicine showing the progress achieved in patients safety over the past five years.  

According to CWF, users of WhyNotTheBest.org can conduct side-by-side comparisons of more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide, track performance over time against numerous benchmarks, and download tools to improve healthcare quality.

Follow Diana Manos on Twitter @DManos_IT_News.