A new study from Michigan Medicine found that where a patient undergoes heart surgery significantly affects their risk of infection following the procedure.

Researchers estimated that if U.S. hospitals with higher infection rates for heart surgery patients could achieve outcomes similar to hospitals with the lowest rates, they could prevent around 2,600 infections annually and reduce Medicare spending by over $440 million. These findings underscore the need to determine why some hospitals achieve better outcomes in postsurgical infections.

Roughly one in five patients develop an infection in the months following heart surgery. Urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and sepsis are some of the infections that are most common. The study found that hospitals with the highest infection rates experienced more than twice as many infections as the best-performing hospitals, regardless of differences in patients and procedures.

Hospitals with higher infection rates had higher rates of stroke, readmission, and death up to six months after surgery. More than one-quarter of postsurgical infections were identified when patients were readmitted to a different hospital than the one where they underwent surgery, which could point to fragmented care being a factor.