State health officials Thursday released a report indicating that Kansas is on track to meet federal benchmarks for reducing the incidence of hospital-acquired infections.

“In Kansas, we are seeing progress in the reduction of HAIs,” said Dr. Robert Moser, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environmet. “The HAI infection data reported today is a significant step forward in the prevention of infection and protection of patients.”

Hospital-acquired infections are considered mostly preventable. The term is used to describe infections that patients get but didn’t have before they went to a hospital for treatment.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that each year Americans contract 1.7 million infections while being treated in hospitals, resulting in about 99,000 deaths annually, or more than three times the number of Americans killed each year in traffic accidents. They are thought to add an estimated $30 billion to annual healthcare costs.

The report, based on 2011 data but released today, noted apparent reductions in two of the more common types of infections resulting from treatment in intensive care units: urinary tract infections from catheters and “central line” bloodstream infections.

It concluded that Kansas is on track to meet the national goal of reducing the bloodstream infections by 50 percent by 2013 and urinary tract infections by 25 percent. It also concluded that there were 67 percent fewer bloodstream infections than expected based on national data and 26 percent fewer urinary tract infections.  -KHI News Service