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What’s New in the
Patient Safety World
January 2024
HAI’s Drop Sharply
Post-Pandemic
After seeing a rise in most HAI’s (healthcare-acquired infections) during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sharp drop in rates of most HAI’s in 2022 (CDC 2023). In acute care hospitals there was:
· a 19% decrease in ventilator-associated events from 2021 to 2022
· a 16% decrease in hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia
· a 12% decrease in CAUTI’s (catheter-associated urinary tract infections)
· a 9% decrease in CLABSI’s (central line–associated bloodstream infections)
· a 3% decrease in hospital-onset Clostridioides difficile (CDI) infections
Largest decreases in CLABSI’s and CAUTI’s were seen in ICU’s (21% and 27% respectively).
SSI’s (surgical site infections) were unchanged between 2021 and 2022 in 9 of 10 procedures tracked. However, hip arthroplasty SSI’s actually increased 8%.
Obviously, easing of the pandemic allowed more attention to be focused on preventing HAI’s.
While the improvements were substantial in acute care hospitals, there was little change in other healthcare settings (inpatient rehabilitation facilities, critical access hospitals, and long-term acute care hospitals). This report did not address SNF’s (skilled nursing facilitites) but it notes that 1 in 43 nursing home residents contracts at least one infection in association with their healthcare each day (CDC 2022). The latter report also notes that 1 in 31 US patients contracts at least one infection in association with their healthcare every day, underscoring the need for more improvement.
Some of our prior columns on HAI’s (hospital-acquired infections):
December 28, 2010 “HAI’s: Looking In All The Wrong Places”
October 2013 “HAI’s: Costs, WHO Hand Hygiene, etc.”
February 2015 “17% Fewer HAC’s: Progress or Propaganda?”
April 2016 “HAI’s:
Gaming the System?”
September 2016 “More
on Preventing HAI’s”
November 2018 “Privacy
Curtains Shared Rooms and HAI’s”
December 2018 “HAI
Rates Drop”
January 2019 “Oral
Decontamination Strategy Fails”
February 2019 “Infection
Prevention for Anesthesiologists”
March 2019 “Does
Surgical Gowning Technique Matter?”
May 2019 “Focus
on Prophylactic Antibiotic Duration”
July 2019 “HAI’s and Nurse Staffing”
February 2020 “NICU: Decolonize the Parents”
June 16, 2020 “Tracking Technologies”
August 2020 “Surgical Site Infections and Laparoscopy”
December 2020 “Do You Have These Infection Control Vulnerabilities?”
May 2021 “CLABSI’s Up in the COVID-19 Era”
August 2021 “Updated Guidelines on C. diff”
October 2021 “HAI’s Increase During COVID-19 Pandemic”
June 2022 “Guideline Update: Preventing Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia”
June 21, 2022 “Preventing Post-op Pneumonia”
June 28, 2022 “Pneumonia in Nervous System Injuries”
August 2022 “Resistant Infections Up During COVID-19 Pandemic”
November 15, 2020 “Which Antiseptic?”
December 2022 “Game Changer to Prevent SSI’s in Abdominal Surgery?”
May 30, 2023 “Non-Ventilator-Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia Finally Gets Attention”
August 2023 “New MRSA Guidelines”
September 12, 2023 “Radiology and Hospital-Acquired Infections”
References:
CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). 2022 National and State Healthcare-Associated Infections Progress Report. CDC 2023
https://www.cdc.gov/hai/data/portal/progress-report.html
CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). HAI and Antibiotic Use Prevalence Survey. CDC February 25, 2022
https://www.cdc.gov/hai/eip/antibiotic-use.html
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