Taking advantage of public reporting: An infection composite score to assist evaluating hospital performance for infection prevention efforts.

Background: The standardized infection ratio (SIR) evaluates individual publicly reported health care-associated infections, but it may not assess overall performance.

Methods: We piloted an infection composite score (ICS) in 82 hospitals of a single health system. The ICS is a combined score for central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, colon and abdominal hysterectomy surgical site infections, and hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia and Clostridium difficile infections.