Magill SS, et al. - After a point-prevalence survey conducted in the US in 2011 revealed health care–associated infection in 4% of hospitalized patients, researchers examined changes in the prevalence of health care–associated infections by repeating the survey in 2015. Outcomes revealed a lower prevalence of health care–associated infections in 2015 than in 2011. Increasing prevention strategies against Clostridium difficile infection and pneumonia is recommended to continue to make progress in the prevention of such infections.

Methods

• Researchers recruited up to 25 hospitals at each Emerging Infections Program site in 10 states; hospitals that had participated in the 2011 survey were given priority.
• A random sample of patients was assessed on one day selected by each hospital.
• Trained staff used the 2011 definitions of health care–associated infections to review medical records.
• They evaluated the association of survey year with the risk of health care–associated infections by comparing the percentages of patients with health care–associated infections and performing multivariable log-binomial regression modeling.

Results

• For the 2015 survey, a total of 12,299 patients in 199 hospitals were evaluated vs 11,282 patients in 183 hospitals in 2011.
• Reductions in the prevalence of surgical-site and urinary tract infections seemed to largely account for the reduction in overall health care–associated infections in 2015 (394 patients [3.2%; 95% confidence interval {CI}, 2.9 to 3.5]) than 2011 (452 [4.0%; 95% CI, 3.7 to 4.4]) (P < 0.001).
• Most commonly encountered health care–associated infections included pneumonia, gastrointestinal infections (most of which were due to C. difficile), and surgical-site infections.
• In 2015, there was a 16% drop in patients’ risk of health care–associated infection vs 2011 (risk ratio, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.74 to 0.95; P=0.005), after adjustment for age, presence of devices, days from admission to survey, and status of being in a large hospital.