Hawaii residents have one less thing to worry about on their next hospital visit. Local medical centers have some of the lowest instances of health-care-associated infections in the country, according to state Department of Health data collected from 14 Hawaii hospitals.

Patients are vulnerable to a host of infections when they stay in hospitals, including those affecting the bloodstream and urinary tract, and those following hysterectomies and colon operations.

Almost 20 million patients get hospital infections each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This translates to roughly one infection for every 20 patients — a statistic that local health care data do not come close to approaching, according to state epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park.

"During 2012, our facilities were able to maintain considerably lower numbers … compared with the rates predicted by national data, although we will not know precisely how we compare to the rest of the nation until CDC releases its 2012 report," Park said in a press release.

"However, there is still room for improvement in reducing HAIs in Hawaii," she said, using the acronym for health-care-associated infections. "Our eventual goal is to eliminate HAIs."

Data were collected from Castle Medical Center, Hilo Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, Kona Community Hospital, Kuakini Medical Center, Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital, Maui Memorial Medical Center, North Hawaii Community Hospital, Pali Momi Medical Center, Straub Clinic and Hospital, the Queen’s Medical Center, Wahiawa General Hospital and Wilcox Memorial Hospital.

The analysis is the first of its kind: It comes after the Hawaii DOH collaborated with national health care experts, including Johns Hopkins University, to implement anti-infection practices in intensive-care units statewide.

Hawaii also had the second-lowest instance of central-line-associated bloodstream infection in the nation. A central line is a catheter placed into a large vein in the neck, chest or groin for the delivery of medicine or fluids and to take blood tests and other measurements.

Since starting the collaboration in 2011, the state has seen an 80 percent decrease in central-line infections, said patient care improvement advocate Dr. Della M. Lin.

The collaboration, spearheaded by Lin, involved every intensive-care unit in the state, said Zeshan Chisty, epidemiologist and Disease Investigation Branch spokesman. Some of the changes were as simple as frequent hand-washing, Chisty said.

The DOH press release said that the findings from the research will be used to continue reducing infections and improve hospital care.