ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - Consumer Reports has released a listing of hospitals, based on their rate of hospital-acquired infections - and several local hospitals do not fare well.

Highland, Rochester General, and Strong Memorial Hospitals all received a “worse than average” ratings from the non-profit.

Dr. John Santa is the director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center. He says infections like “central line infections” - which patients pick up in the intensive care unit - can be prevented by taking simple, low-tech precautions. Those precautions are called a “bundle,” or a “checklist,” and some hospitals are beginning to follow them religiously to avoid infection.

“There are diseases that consumers get in hospitals. Consumers don’t cause these, patients don’t cause these. It’s not their fault that they get these infections. It is actually the fault of the hospital or the doctors taking care of them … these central line infections are the first of these that have been shown to be totally preventable in the right set of circumstances.”

Santa says hospitals have to adopt precautions wholesale, driven from top hospital leadership on down.

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