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Seattle-area hospitals get low marks for stopping infections

Many of the Seattle area’s largest and best-known hospitals may fall short when it comes to preventing patients from acquiring potentially deadly infections during their stays, a new analysis shows.

Of the region’s five biggest hospitals — including the University of Washington (UWMC) and Harborview medical centers — none achieved top ratings in Consumer Reports’ latest rankings, released Wednesday. All received low or middling scores both overall and for halting two newly added infections: C. diff and MRSA.

One high-profile hospital — Swedish Medical Center’s Cherry Hill campus — received the magazine’s lowest rating for avoiding infections overall, and the second-worst rating for stopping Clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections.