New Mexico has the highest rate of Clostridium difficile infections for the second year, while Nevada has the lowest, federal data shows.
The measures, developed by the CDC and collected through the National Healthcare Safety Network, show how often patients in a particular hospital contract certain infections during the course of medical treatment when compared to similar hospitals. Scores are collected and ordered by state from October 2022 to September 2023 and were last updated July 31.
The CDC calculates a standardized infection ratio, which may take into account care location, number of patients with an existing infection, lab methods, hospital affiliation with a medical school, hospital bed size, patient age and patient health. The measures apply to all patients treated in acute care hospitals, including adult, pediatric, neonatal, Medicare and non-Medicare patients, according to the CMS data dictionary. Find the list of hospitals with a C. difficile rate of zero here.
Below is the standardized infection ratio for C. difficile in each state, listed from lowest to highest:
Nevada — 0.255
Florida — 0.293
Tennessee — 0.294
Virginia — 0.295
North Carolina — 0.346
Texas — 0.342
South Carolina — 0.334
Rhode Island — 0.332
Puerto Rico — 0.319
Delaware — 0.32
Oklahoma — 0.362
Alaska — 0.381
District of Columbia — 0.383
New Jersey — 0.394
Arkansas — 0.396
Louisiana — 0.402
Mississippi — 0.404
Colorado — 0.405
Georgia — 0.406
North Dakota — 0.422
Illinois — 0.434
Indiana — 0.436
Kentucky — 0.447
Missouri — 0.446
Montana — 0.45
New York — 0.453
Michigan — 0.457
Idaho — 0.456
South Dakota — 0.463
Alabama — 0.473
Kansas — 0.479
Ohio — 0.481
California — 0.486
Minnesota — 0.491
Arizona — 0.493
Utah — 0.494
Maine — 0.5
Iowa — 0.504
Pennsylvania — 0.505
Nebraska — 0.523
Oregon — 0.522
Hawaii — 0.519
Maryland — 0.519
Connecticut — 0.542
Washington — 0.557
Wisconsin — 0.562
New Hampshire — 0.563
West Virginia — 0.617
Wyoming — 0.611
Massachusetts — 0.606
Vermont — 0.743
New Mexico — 0.7