A progress report from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) reveals that charges of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) at US hospitals fell in 2023.
The 2023 Nationwide and State HAI Progress Report, based mostly on information offered to the CDC’s Nationwide Healthcare Security Community by 38,000 acute-care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation amenities (IRFs), and long-term acute-care hospitals (LTACHs), reveals general declines in HAIs in contrast with 2022. The declines, primarily seen in acute-care hospitals, replicate a unbroken downward pattern within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with some HAIs falling beneath pre-pandemic ranges.
Total, US acute-care hospitals in 2023 noticed a 15% decline in central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in contrast with 2022, an 11% drop in catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), and a 5% decline in ventilator-associated occasions (VAEs). Moreover, hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia was down 16% in contrast with 2022, and hospital-onset Clostridioides difficile an infection (CDI) fell by 13%.
On the state degree, 30 states carried out higher in 2023 on at the very least two an infection varieties, 21 states carried out higher on three an infection varieties, and 9 states carried out higher on 4 an infection varieties.
The declines weren’t noticed in all healthcare settings, nevertheless. In IRFs and LTACHs, solely hospital-onset CDI fell considerably in 2023 (by 13% and 14%, respectively). IRFs additionally noticed an 8% improve in CAUTIs.
Progress must be sustained
Earlier CDC experiences confirmed that HAI charges in US hospitals rose considerably in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rise in HAIs, which adopted years of declines, resulted from overwhelmed hospitals having fewer sources to commit to an infection prevention and management and affected person security.
“Whereas a lot progress has been made, extra must be carried out to stop healthcare-associated infections in a wide range of settings,” the CDC stated. “Full engagement between native, state and federal public well being companies and their companions within the healthcare sector by way of initiatives equivalent to prevention collaboratives is important to sustaining and lengthening HAI surveillance and prevention progress.”
