Jefferson City, MOMissouri recently deleted all of its data regarding hospital infections prior to 2009.
State officials said that maintaining the records cost too much money and the information was too sensitive to be kept for more than a year, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Consumer advocates contend that now there is no way for patients to evaluate how well hospitals are able to prevent infections.
"In the age of the internet, there's no excuse for that," Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumers Union's national Safe Patient Project, told the news source. "The old reports should remain, and they should be marked by date."
According to the news source, Missouri was one of the first states to require hospitals to reveal their infection rates each year. However, some state lawmakers have been upset with how the law has been implemented.
"I'm surprised at the agency," former state Senator Sarah Steelman told the news provider. "The job of the health department is to protect people. It makes no sense at all to eliminate data after one year."
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