Hospitals report mixed results in protecting patients from infections

Hospitals report mixed results in protecting patients from infections

Hospitals report mixed results in protecting patients from infections

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent this bulletin at 02/12/2013 03:11 PM EST

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Hospitals report mixed results in protecting patients from infections

CDC report shows reduction in some infection types, but others remain unchanged

Hospitals in the U.S. continue to make progress in the fight against central line-associated bloodstream infections and some surgical site infections, but did not see improvement in catheter-associated urinary tract infections between 2010 and 2011, according to a new report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report looked at data submitted to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), CDC’s premiere infection tracking system, which receives data from more than 11,500 healthcare facilities across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Healthcare facilities using NHSN have real-time access to their data for local improvement efforts. This annual report provides analysis of national and state-level healthcare-associated infection data to help identify gaps in prevention.

CDC reported for 2011:

• A 41 percent reduction in central line-associated bloodstream infections since 2008, up from the 32 percent reduction reported in 2010. Progress in preventing these infections was seen in intensive care units (ICU), wards, and neonatal ICUs in all reporting facilities. A central line is a tube that is placed in a large vein of a patient's neck or chest to give important medical treatment. When not put in correctly or kept clean, central lines can become a freeway for germs to enter the body and cause serious bloodstream infections. CDC estimates that 12,400 central line-associated bloodstream infections occurred in 2011, costing one payer, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), approximately $26,000 per infection.
• A 17 percent reduction in surgical site infections since 2008, up from the 7 percent reduction reported in 2010.This improvement was not evident for all procedure types, and there is still substantial opportunity for improvement across a range of operative procedures.
• A 7 percent reduction in catheter-associated urinary tract infections since 2009, which is the same percentage of reduction that was reported in 2010. While there were modest reductions in infections among patients in general wards, there was essentially no reduction in infections reported in critical care locations.

The full report is available at http://www.cdc.gov/hai/national-annual-sir/index.html.

For information about what your state is doing to protect patients from healthcare-associated infections, visit http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/state-based/index.html.

For broadcast quality clips featuring CDC Director, Dr. Thomas Frieden, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/media/subtopic/audioVideo.htm