Nursing homes vary in the standard of care they provide to their residents, but one area where substandard performance is quite often seen is in facilities' efforts to control infection.

In fact, negligent treatment of infection coupled with caregivers skimping on infection control measures is a significant problem in nursing homes across the United States, say the authors of a new medical study carried out by the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. Their findings indicate that, over a several-year period ending in 2007, 15 percent of almost all nursing homes in the country were cited for deficiencies in controlling infections.

That is a serious matter, given the nearly two million nursing home residents in the United States and their comparative vulnerability to illness and disease. Study authors say that close to four million infections can occur annually among this population, resulting in nearly 400,000 deaths.

Data used in the study was taken from a public database where it is collected pursuant to the certification process for Medicare and Medicaid. Nursing home licensure requires this certification, so the information that is available is vast, with 96 percent of all nursing homes in the country -- about 16,000 facilities -- having facility-specific information online for examination.

Specifically, researchers looked at the types and severity of citations addressing infection control that were issued nursing homes by teams of independent surveyors. A noteworthy finding was that close to half of all citations received related to deficiencies that allowed for the potential for more than minimal harm in the severity and scope of infections.

Researchers were particularly disturbed by what they called "an evident upward trend" in infection control violations across succeeding years.

One area of focus that study authors encourage follow through on is better adherence to hand hygiene. "Our findings clearly demonstrate the need for this kind of focus in U.S. nursing homes," their report states.

Related Resource: Medscape News, "US Nursing Homes Have Poor Record of Infection Control" May 5, 2011