A new CDC report released this week gave a status update on the national Winnable Battle to reduce hospital associated infections. Not all medical procedures carry the same risk of infection, so the report uses something called a standardized infection ratio to compare infection rates among hospitals. It’s a complicated statistic, but basically, it divides [...]
Healthcare-associated infections are a critical public health challenge in Arizona and in the US. Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are acquired during healthcare treatment and can be devastating and even deadly- and they’re largely preventable. You may have seen the article in last week's Republic about dirty needles and their link to transmission of viruses and drug-resistant superbugs. The article [...]
Bloodstream infections that start because of a “central line” in a person’s body are among the most serious of all healthcare-associated infections- causing thousands of deaths each year and about $700M in added costs. The CDC estimates that there were about 41,000 infections like these U.S. hospitals last year… and 25% percent of patients who [...]
Healthcare-associated infections are a critical challenge to public health in Arizona. Healthcare associated infections are acquired during healthcare treatment and can be devastating and even deadly- importantly, they’re preventable. At any given time, about 1 in 20 patients have an infection while receiving healthcare treatment in U.S. hospitals, causing up to $33B in excess medical [...]
Good news this time. The number of bloodstream infections in intensive care unit patients with central lines decreased by 58% over the last 10 years according to a new CDC Vital Signs report. This decrease saved 27,000 lives and $1.8B in excess health care costs. Bloodstream infections in patients with central lines can be deadly, [...]
A recent report in Surgery News found that a six-month "process improvement project" that added a simple hand-washing question to the daily ICU checklist decreased the rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections in a surgical ICU.
Healthcare-associated infections claim more lives in Arizona every year than auto accidents or influenza. Surprised? That’s why the Governor issued a proclamation making this week as Infection Prevention week in Arizona- providing us with an opportunity to call attention to one of the CDC’s Winnable Battles- defeating Healthcare-Associated Infections. We had a news conference (along with [...]
Each year in the US there are 1.7 million health care associated infections that cause approximately 99,000 deaths in US hospitals. There are lots of germs that can cause health care associated infections, but 16% are in the really bad category because they’re resistant to antibiotics. These multidrug-resistant organisms pose huge problems once they get [...]
I was in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago for new health officer orientation and was able to meet with Dr. Frieden (the new head of the CDC) a couple of times. Each time that we met he referred to a general theme that the CDC will be using over the next 3 years to drive [...]
Some of the best infection control experts are laying out the plan on how to fight Healthcare-Associated Infections in the next decade. The International Conference on HAIs just wrapped up in Atlanta – it marked the first time that four leading scientific organizations committed to infection prevention are working together to further a scientific and [...]
