Reports of C. difficile and other infection outbreaks in Ontario hospitals recently prompted the provincial government to make a formal commitment to patient safety, introducing mandatory public reporting of hospital infection rates and examining patient safety measures currently in place. So what is actually happening in Ontario hospitals?  CIHI’s latest report, Patient Safety in Ontario Acute Care Hospitals: A Snapshot of Hospital Acquired Infection Control Practices 2008, examines hand hygiene policies, surveillance programs and infection control practices in place in Ontario’s acute care hospitals, as well as at the proportion of Ontario hospitals permitting the reuse of single-use medical devices.

• Jeannie Lacroix, Manager of Hospital Reports for Canadian Institute for Health Information