Detecting Sources of Healthcare Associated Infections

Prevention of healthcare associated infections Contents What are healthcare-associated infections 4 First of all. Clean your hands! 9 Hospital hygiene Surgical site infections Catheter-associated urinary tract infections Hospital-acquired pneumonia and Ventilator-associated pneumonia Central line-associated bloodstream infections Clostridioides difficile infection Challenges with surveillance of healthcare-associated Infections Behavior changes to reduce healthcare-associated infections What are healthcare-associated infections? Each year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Although HAIs are the most frequent adverse event in health care, however their true global burden remains unknown because of the difficulty in gathering reliable data. An HAI is an infection occurring in a patient during the process of care in a hospital or other health care facility which was not present or incubating at the time of admission. HAIs can affect patients in any type of setting where they receive care and can also appear after discharge. HAIs can develop either as a direct result of healthcare intervention or from being in contact with a healthcare setting. Every day, HAIs result in prolonged hospital stays, long-term disability, increased resistance of microorganisms to antimicrobials, massive additional costs for health systems, high costs for patients and their family, and unnecessary deaths. The application of appropriate infection prevention and control strategies by the HCWs can reduce the risk of HAIs, as most of them are preventable. The preventable proportion of HAIs may decrease over time as standards of care improve. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published between 2005 and 2016 assessing multifaceted interventions to reduce catheterassociated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), surgical site infections (SSIs), ventilatorassociated pneumonia (VAP), and hospital-acquired pneumonia not associated with mechanical ventilation (HAP) in acute-care or long-term care settings suggested a sustained potential for the significant reduction of HAI rates in the range of 35%-55% associated with multifaceted interventions irrespective of a country's income level. Continued progress in healthcare epidemiology and implementation science research has led to improvements in our understanding of effective strategies for HAI prevention. Despite these advancements, HAIs continue to affect many hospitalized patients, leading to substantial morbidity, mortality, and excess healthcare expenditures, and there are persistent gaps between what is recommended and what is practiced.