The effect of various hospital characteristics on the incidence of hospital-acquired infections

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) represent one of the most pressing challenges currently facing health care providers. The human and financial toll wrought by HAIs is staggering and demands more thorough and sound analysis than is currently available if meaningful policy is to be enacted to minimize their occurrences. Building on one recent econometric study and a literature base that largely focuses on the costs of HAIs and potential prevention protocols, it is the aim of this paper to analyze every hospital in Pennsylvania (with 2006 data) to investigate what hospital characteristics lead to greater incidences of hospital-acquired infection. Before the data was analyzed, it was the intention of this paper to prove that that despite being recognized as "prestige" hospitals that are typically given the highest quality ratings, large, urban teaching hospitals that see the most patients and offer the most extensive services would be the ones with the highest rates of hospital-acquired infections.;However, after running the regression analysis, it appears that the characteristics in this model that are typically associated with prestige hospitals (teaching hospital status, transplant services, cardiac surgery) had the effect of reducing the incidence of hospital-acquired infections.