All Pennsylvania residents assume that the decisions made by health care providers in regard to their health will be thoughtfully considered and in their best interest. This is true whether a person is receiving care in a doctor's office or planning on undergoing a surgery. As we all know however, this is not always the case and medical malpractice lawsuits alleging hospital negligence are often filed.

More and more patients are looking to educate themselves on the safety record of a health care facility before choosing to obtain care. For anyone planning to have a surgery, the prevention of infections at the site of the surgery is important. Accordingly, such a person would be interested in statistics regarding the matter. Perhaps not surprisingly however, this information is not always easy to come by.

The difficulty in obtaining this information is because not all states require hospitals to report the development of such infections. In fact, according to a recent study published online in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, only 21 states, less than half of the nation, make it mandatory. Of those, only 10 states have made the information public. The information that is provided is not consistent from state-to-state.

Pennsylvania residents will be relieved to know that their state is one of the 21 that does require reporting of infections that occur at surgical sites.

According to the director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, access to information regarding surgical site infections would be helpful to all, throughout the nation. In addition to being made available nationwide, he believes the information should be standardized. Such access would likely improve the quality of the health care provided.

Source: American Medical News, "Only 10 states post hospital data on surgical site infections," Kevin B. O'Reilly, April 2, 2012