D.C.’s hospitals second-dirtiest nationwide, new study says

The District of Columbia has the second-dirtiest hospitals in the country, according to a new study that looked at the infection rate per hospital and other metrics.

In the study from health care staffing platform Nursa, Delaware ranked as having the dirtiest hospitals with a 9.59 out of 10, followed by the District at 9.41, Alabama at 9.11, Michigan at 8.54,  Connecticut at 8.41, North Carolina at 8.39, North Dakota at 8.27, Missouri at 8.2, Maryland at 8.19 and Arizona at 8.18.

Nursa tabulated scores based on the number of infections from patient visits per hospital in 2023, the number of inspections that found a hospital to be dirty per hospital from 2010-25, and the percentage of reports received that said bathrooms and rooms were sometimes or never clean from the most recent Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey.

In 2023, there were 340 infections caused by patient visits per hospital in the District and a total of 2,253 infections.

The District’s hospital cleanliness rating was 2.33 out of 5.

In Maryland, which ranked ninth-dirtiest, there were 277 infections per hospital, 1.49 inspections that suggested dirtiness per hospital, and 11.3% of reports received said bathrooms and rooms were sometimes or never clean. The state’s cleanliness rating was 2.74 out of 5.

Virginia came in the middle of the pack at 28th out of the 51 jurisdictions covered by the study. There were 315 infections per hospital, 1.23 inspections that suggested dirtiness per hospital, and 8.93% of reports received by hospitals said rooms and bathrooms were sometimes or never clean. The state’s cleanliness rating was 3.35 out of 5.

On the other end of the scale, the 10 states with the cleanest hospitals were Utah with a 2.71 out of 10, Hawaii at 3.48, Nebraska at 4.51, Indiana at 5.02, Kansas at 5.16, Wisconsin at 5.2, New Hampshire at 5.33, Alaska at 5.44, Wyoming at 5.46 and Rhode Island at 5.54.