12 hospitals honored for low infections

US health officials said Tuesday 12 U.S. hospitals and healthcare facilities were being honored for their efforts to prevent healthcare-associated infections. The Critical Care Societies Collaborative and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the recipients demonstrated success in reducing and eliminating central line-associated bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia for 25 months or longer. \"Since the 2009 advent of the National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections, we have seen rapid progress in reducing rates of several infections, especially in intensive care settings,\" Dr. Don Wright, deputy assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement. Doctors Medical Center of Modesto and Twin Cities Community Hospital -- both in California -- were honored along with Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit were honored in Orlando, Fla., during the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses\' National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition. Recognition was also given to Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, Roper Hospital in Charleston, S.C.; Tennessee Valley Healthcare System in Nashville; University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; Mother Frances Hospital Regional Health Care Center in Tyler, Texas; and Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center in Virginia.