(a) The Department shall annually submit to the legislature a report summarizing the hospital quarterly reports and shall publish the annual report on its website. The Department shall update the public information on a quarterly basis. (b) All reports issued by the Department shall be risk-adjusted or use some other method to account for the differences in patient populations among hospitals. (c) The annual report shall compare healthcare associated infection rates to national rates published by the CDC's NHSN program and collected pursuant to this chapter for each individual hospital in this State. The Department, in consultation with the Advisory Committee, shall make this report as easy to comprehend as possible. The report shall also include an executive summary, written in plain language that shall include but not be limited to a discussion of findings, conclusions and trends concerning the overall state of healthcare associated infections in this State, including a comparison to prior years. The report may include policy recommendations, as appropriate. (d) The Department shall publicize the report and its availability as widely as practical to interested parties, including but not limited to hospitals, providers, media organizations, health insurers, health maintenance organizations, purchasers of health insurance, organized labor, consumer or patient advocacy groups and individual consumers. The annual report shall be made available to any person upon request. (e) No hospital report or Department disclosure may contain information identifying a patient, employee or licensed healthcare professional in connection with a specific infection incident. (f) The annual report shall provide background information about each hospital which shall include: the hospital's adult and pediatric populations, bed size, and specialty divisions; whether the hospital provides tertiary care; and whether the hospital is a teaching or a nonteaching institution. This background information shall be included in the public report. (g) The annual report shall include a brief summary report to allow hospitals to comment on performance improvement and changes in patient population and risk factors. The information contained in the summary report shall be considered proprietary information and shall be utilized by the Department but shall not be made available in the public report and shall not be subject to disclosure under the State's Freedom of Information Act (Chapter 100 of Title 29).
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