Large Joint Infection Rates Vary Wildly Between Hospitals

In a major piece published on the internet written by Hallie Levine, Consumer Reports urges patients contemplating knee replacement surgery to be very careful in choosing the hospital where they have the surgery done. Doris Peter, Ph.D., director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center advised, “Your chances of developing an infection after knee replacement can vary substantially depending on which hospital you go to. When we took a close look at hospitals in California, for example, we found striking differences among hospitals even in the same area.”

Peter reported that St. Jude Medical Center in Los Angeles had no knee infections which earned the hospital Consumer Reports’ highest rating. By contrast Los Alamitos Medical Center—just 15 miles away—had an infection rate that was more than twice the national average and received Consumer Reports lowest Rating.

Knee infections following replacement surgery are not rare. Levine reported that of the 720, 000 total knee replacement operations performed in the U.S. last year, about 14, 000 cases resulted in painful infections. John Grady-Benson, M.D., medical director of the Center for Outcomes Research at the Connecticut Joint Replacement Institute in Hartford, Connecticut said, “It’s [knee infections] incredibly costly, difficult to diagnose, and difficult to treat, usually requiring multiple operations.” During that time, “a patient may be more disabled and in more pain than they were before the original surgery.”

Lisa McGiffert, director of the Consumer Reports’ Safe Patient Project, suggests that patients ask eight questions of a hospital before undergoing the joint replacement procedure. The questions are:

1. What is the Hospital’s Infection Rate?
2. What is the Surgeon’s Complication Rate?
3. How Many Knee Replacements Do the Surgeon and Hospital Perform Each Year?
4. How Does the Hospital Prevent Infections?
5. How Does the Surgeon Cover the Incision?
6. How Long Do Patients Stay in the Hospital?
7. Has the Device Been the Subject of a Recall?
8. Am I a good candidate for surgery?