Medical Team

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published the results of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Healthcare-Associated Infections Prevalence Survey 2015 (2015 HAI Prevalence Survey). The multi-state point prevalence survey set to determine how common Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are in U.S. hospitals.

Results show that about 3 percent of hospital patients had an HAI, and patients were 16 percent less likely to have an HAI in 2015 than they were in 2011, which is when a similar survey was last conducted.

Key findings from the 2015 HAI Prevalence Survey include:

• On any given day, about one in 31 hospital patients has at least one HAI
• Fewer patients had HAIs in 2015 than in 2011, largely due to reductions in the prevalence of surgical-site and urinary tract infections
• More progress is needed in the prevention of C. difficile infections and pneumonia
• The most common infection types were:

  • pneumonia (26% of all infections)
  • gastrointestinal infections (21%)
  • surgical site infections (16%)
  • bloodstream infections unrelated to an infection at another site (12%)
  • urinary tract infections (9%)

More information about the survey methods can be found here.

Additionally, the improvements seen in Healthcare-associated Infections in the United States, 2006-2016: A Story of Progress, a report CDC published in early 2018, confirms the areas of progress that are identified in the 2015 HAI Prevalence Survey. Together, these reports enable the nation, states, facilities, and health departments to pinpoint areas for improvement in HAI prevention.

The 2015 HAI Prevalence Survey involved 199 U.S. acute care hospitals and was completed through CDC’s Emerging Infections Program, a network of state health departments, academic medical centers and other partners.