National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)

CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network is the nation’s most widely used healthcare-associated infection tracking system.  NHSN provides facilities, states, regions, and the nation with data needed to identify infections, measure progress of infection prevention efforts, and ultimately reduce healthcare-associated infections.

Eliminating infections, many of which are preventable, is a significant way to improve care and decrease costs. CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network provides long-term care facilities with a customized system to track infections in a streamlined and systematic way. When facilities track infections, they can identify problems and track progress toward stopping infections. NHSN’s long-term care component is ideal for use by: nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, chronic care facilities, assisted living facilities and residential care facilities

Great Plains QIN is partnering with nursing homes across the region to prepare them for future quality reporting requirements, improve infection control practices, and improve resident outcomes.  Participating Nursing Homes are using NHSN (National Healthcare Safety Network) to track CDI (Clostridium difficile) rates as well as receiving tools, resources, and education for infection prevention, control and communication.