Last week, the CDC released the National and State Healthcare-associated Infection Data Report for 2015 National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) data. The National Healthcare Safety Network is the nation’s most widely used Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) tracking system and is being used for care improvement by facilities, states, regions, quality groups, and national public health agencies including CDC. The annual report uses the updated national baseline to provide a summary of select HAIs across four healthcare settings: acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term acute care hospitals, and critical access hospitals.
For the first time, this year’s report included data on Ventilator-Associated Events along with Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections, Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections, Surgical Site Infections after colon surgery and abdominal hysterectomy, hospital lab-identified methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia, and Clostridium difficile infections. The report include infection-specific standardized infection ratios (SIRs), which measure progress in reducing HAIs compared to a baseline time period.
Arizona’s data indicates that the state has lower infection ratios in three of the seven infection types when compared to the updated national baseline. To help improve healthcare quality and safeguard against healthcare associated events, the HAI Program at ADHS works closely with a multidisciplinary HAI Advisory Committee and subcommittees to identify and address HAI priority areas for Arizona as well as generate guidance documents for healthcare facilities and provide best practices for infection control.
Arizona also has strong partnerships with organizations and healthcare facilities across the state to prevent healthcare associated infections, which supports HAI Prevention work through the Advisory Committee and through Arizona’s State Health Improvement Plan. You can visit preventhaiaz.gov to learn more about how the Arizona Department of Health Services is working to reduce HAIs.
