Children’s hospitals worst for bloodstream infections

Children’s hospitals had the worst rate of serious bloodstream infections last financial year.

Melbourne’s Royal Children's Hospital.

Children’s hospitals had the worst rate of serious bloodstream infections last financial year, putting their patients and potentially ­future funding at risk.

Data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital had a golden staph blood infection rate of 2.79 for every 10,000 patient days while Sydney Children’s Hospital had a rate of 1.94.

With the AIHW using peer groups to better judge performance, the two hospitals pushed up the average for children’s hospitals to 1.42, considerably higher than the average for either major, large or medium hospital groups.

The result was also higher than the previous year.

The second-highest rate overall last year, and highest among large hospitals, was 2.48 at Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital in NSW. Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in WA had the highest rate among major hospitals with 1.49, while, for medium hospitals, Maitland Hospital in NSW had the highest rate with 1.80.

Nationally, the rate was 0.73, lower than the year before and below the national benchmark of 2.0, with 82 per cent of cases able to be treated with antibiotics.

“In hospitals, staphylococcus aureus bacteria are most commonly transmitted via the hands of healthcare workers,” the AIHW report released today said.

“Bacteria from the patient’s skin or from the hand of a healthcare worker can gain direct entry into a patient’s bloodstream if they have open wounds or when invasive devices such as catheters are inserted.”

Patients who are very sick, very young, very old or have an immune system weakened by cancer or a transplant are most at risk of infection. They could die from the ensuing complications.

While infections can be prevented by handwashing, authorities have sought to give hospitals a financial incentive to avoid such mistakes. There has yet to be any funding reconciliations under the quality-based system.