Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI), are a global concern and accounts the common adverse events in healthcare service delivery. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 31 hospital patients have at least one HAI on any given day. Evidence shows hospital acquired infection can lead to prolonged hospital stay, increased antimicrobial resistance, additional financial expenses, and evitable deaths. Although HAI are frequent, its true global burden remains unknown.
The prevention and reduction of healthcare-associated infections is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention determined to take steps to prevent these common healthcare associated infections-Catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI),Central line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI),Clostridium difficile (CDI or C diff), Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA),Surgical site infection (SSI),Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP).
The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), widely used HAI tracking system in US, reported targeted HAI infection rates. The inherent need of the surveillance system is to measure the burden, to identify prevention problems and to drive progress. In 2017, Healthcare IT Company in Hyderabad delivering tailored services to US based hospitals developed a real time infection surveillance system for its network hospitals which collected process data. Hospital wide surveillance system across 31 hospitals captures suspicious cases. Out of which total confirmed HAI cases over a period January 2018 to December 2019 were extracted from the IPC surveillance and abstract portal. The primary focus of this study is to prioritize for prevention. The results showed that the HAI incidence rate was 0.4 per 1000 patient days over a period of study and comparatively lesser than any other performing hospitals. There is a slight increase in the trend from 2018 to 2019.
This study identifies the facilities with highest number of HAI which in-turn can help to direct prevention efforts towards facilities or units in greatest need of improvement. The facilities within the healthcare network were prioritized using simple ranking method and striving hard to direct further preventive strategies.
