South Carolina Hospitals Mandated to Report Healthcare-Associated Infections

In 2006, state lawmakers passed the Hospital Infections Disclosure Act (HIDA). This law requires hospitals licensed by the South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH), formerly DHEC, to report certain healthcare-associated infection (HAI) events to DPH and the public. 

Hospitals are required to report certain types of infections that patients developed while being treated in the hospital.

HIDA Overview

The Hospital Infections Disclosure Act (HIDA), passed by the South Carolina General Assembly in May 2006, requires hospitals to report specific types of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) to DPH.

Unless you work in the health care field or understand statistics, you may not be familiar with some of the words or labels mentioned in the S.C. Hospital-Acquired Infections Public Reports. On this page, we've tried to explain what some of them mean. Don't worry if it seems like too much to absorb at once. You don't need to know all the terms to understand the reports.

As required in Regulation 60-16, Minimum Standards for Licensing Hospitals and Institutional General Infirmaries,  Level I and II hospitals shall review all live births or fetal/neonatal deaths in which the neonate weighed at least 350 grams and less than 1500 grams, utilizing the Department's Very Low Birthweight Self-monitoring Tool.