CDC contacting facilities with high infection rates
While generally citing continued reductions in key health care associated infections (HAIs), a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance report also revealed some outliers with high infection rates.
A 17% reduction in surgical site infections (SSIs) was reported since 2008, up from the 7% 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, the CDC said.
The report looked at data submitted to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), the CDC’s premiere infection tracking system, which receives data from more than 11,500 healthcare facilities across all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Healthcare facilities using NHSN have real-time access to their data for local improvement efforts. The annual report uses a standardized infection ratio (SIR), which represents a red flag for too many infections if a facility exceeds 1.0. Overall, roughly 2% to 9% of the facilities reported SIRs significantly greater than 1.0, or significantly more infections were observed than predicted.
These include:
• 25 facilities that had SIRs significantly higher than 1.0 for SSIs associated with hip arthroplasty;
• 30 facilities who had SIRs significantly higher than 1.0 for SSIs associated with knee arthroplasty;
• 20 facilities that had SIRs significantly higher than 1.0 for SSIs associated with colon surgery;
• 15 facilities that had SIRs significantly higher than 1.0 for SSIs associated with abdominal hysterectomy.
“These are relatively small numbers of facilities compared to the total number of facilities reporting in 2011,” such as 2,130 reporting SSIs, the CDC concluded. “However, focusing efforts on these facilities may be one strategy to ensure that prevention resources are utilized most wisely in coming years.”
The CDC is contacting the facilities that have significantly high SIRs and connecting them with existing prevention initiatives including:
• state health department collaboratives;
• Partnership for Patients initiative;
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Quality Improvement Organizations;
• Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) initiatives funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (For more on CUSP, see, “Pilot program slashes colorectal SSIs by 33% — Hospital saves $168,000-$280,000 in one year,” Same-Day Surgery, October 2012. To access the CDC report discussed in this article, go to http://1.usa.gov/V4yL5X. To access the CDC web site on SSIs, go to http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/ssi/ssi.html.)
While generally citing continued reductions in key health care associated infections (HAIs), a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance report also revealed some outliers with high infection rates.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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