Ohio hospitals study infections from catheter

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s hospitals are using $190,000 in federal money to fight a type of blood infection that kills thousands of patients and costs millions each year.

There can be complications when a device called a central catheter is inserted into a blood vessel to draw blood or deliver medications quickly. The Ohio Hospital Association says the funding will allow the state’s hospitals to brainstorm on the best ways to reduce central-catheter infections.

Any new practices resulting from the study could become be part of a hospital’s version of a pilot’s preflight checklist.

Addressing the hospital association’s annual meeting, Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Monday that if pilots had the same rate of errors that hospitals do, no one would fly.