{"id":427425,"date":"2026-01-24T17:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/427425\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:09:08","slug":"oregon-hospital-acquired-infections-in-2024-what-the-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/427425\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon hospital-acquired infections in 2024: What the data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oregon hospitals recorded nearly 1,000 infections that patients picked up while receiving care in 2024, resulting in infection levels that missed most national safety standards, according to a new state report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Oregon Health Authority reviewed data from 61 hospitals statewide and tracked infections that develop after surgery, through catheters and IV lines and from drug-resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA. These infections can turn routine hospital stays into life-threatening events, especially for older adults and people with weakened immune systems.<\/p>\n

State health officials measured how Oregon\u2019s hospitals performed against national benchmarks set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data shows<\/a> that hospitals continue to struggle most with preventing surgical site infections and bloodstream and urinary tract infections caused by medical devices. <\/p>\n

When state officials compared hospital performance to a national 2015 baseline, they found that most surgical infections in Oregon were higher than expected, including those after colon surgery, heart bypass procedures and hip and knee replacements. Only on hysterectomy-related surgeries did Oregon hospitals perform better than the baseline.<\/p>\n

Hospitals also reported more surgical infections in 2024 than in 2023, according to state data.<\/p>\n

Some parts of the system improved. Large acute-care hospitals showed progress in reducing bloodstream infections and MRSA. But many of the state\u2019s smaller, rural critical access hospitals moved in the opposite direction, reporting higher rates of those same infections.<\/p>\n

Federal health officials also set national targets for reducing hospital-acquired infections. In 2024, Oregon hospitals met only one of those goals: lowering C. difficile infections, which cause severe diarrhea and stomach pain. They failed to reach the target for every other infection category.<\/p>\n

Dr. Dat Tran, who oversees the Oregon Health Authority\u2019s infection prevention program, said the data gives hospitals a clear picture of where they need to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo health care provider wants to see a hospital-associated infection in one of their patients,\u201d Tran said in a statement. \u201cThese data are intended to help hospitals and health care providers understand where they\u2019re doing well and where they may need to step up their infection control efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s report, however, highlighted one bright spot: all Oregon hospitals now meet national standards for antibiotic stewardship. That means they follow best practices to limit unnecessary antibiotic use.<\/p>\n

State health officials say they continue to support hospitals by studying statewide trends, offering one-on-one infection control assistance and working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to train health care workers. They said patients and visitors can also help stop the spread of infection by washing their hands often, following hospital rules and staying home when sick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oregon hospitals recorded nearly 1,000 infections that patients picked up while receiving care in 2024, resulting in infection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[203199,97,252,253,21729,70942],"class_list":["post-427425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-adventist-medical-center","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-infection","tag-nurse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}