Health
Hospital Infections Still Common, but Rates of Many Are Down
[MedPage Today]
On any given day, one American inpatient in 25 has a healthcare-associated infection, but the rates of many such infections have been falling, according to two CDC reports.
A new survey of acute care hospitals that aimed to determine the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) found that they affect 4% of patients, according to Shelley Magill, MD, PhD, of the CDC, and colleagues.
That is probably an underestimate of the total burden of HAIs because the analysis excluded such things as assisted nursing facilities, Magill and colleagues reported in the March 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
On the other hand, a separate analysis — the National and State Healthcare-Associated Infection Progress Report — shows progress in reducing the rates of several infection types that are required to be reported to the CDC.