The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) posted online an updated National Action Plan to eliminate healthcare-associated infections for public comment. The update confirms progress in the effort to make healthcare safer and less costly by reducing preventable complications of care, including healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
A new state-by-state breakdown by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) demonstrates that HAIs in hospitals have been declining since HHS first introduced its National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections: Roadmap to Elimination in 2009. The CDC report also pinpoints specific medical procedures that require stronger infection prevention efforts to maximize patient safety.
According to data submitted to CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network and reported in the HAI Action Plan, central line-associated bloodstream infections have declined by 33 percent, surgical site infections (SSIs) have declined by 10 percent, and catheter-associated urinary tract infections have declined by 7 percent since the baselines were set.
In addition, invasive Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections have declined by 18 percent, and the use of measures known to prevent SSIs, as reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Surgical Care Improvement Project, have steadily increased since the baseline was established. These reductions are in line with the prevention targets detailed in the HAI Action Plan and the HHS Partnership for Patients initiative.
The HAI Action Plan has nine goals:
- 50 percent reduction in bloodstream infections
- 100 percent adherence to central line insertion practices
- 30 percent reduction in Clostridium difficile infections
- 30 percent reduction in Clostridium difficile hospitalizations
- 25 percent reduction in urinary tract infections
- 50 percent reduction in MRSA invasive infections (in the general population)
- 25 percent reduction in MRSA bacteremia
- 25 percent reduction in surgical site infections
- 95 percent adherence to surgical SCIP measures.
Since 2009, the HAI Action Plan has marshaled resources across HHS, several other federal agencies, and numerous stakeholders in a concerted effort to substantially reduce HAIs by 2013. Phase one of that effort focuses on combating HAIs in hospitals, while phase two focuses on ambulatory surgical settings, end-stage renal disease facilities, and the influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel. A new third phase, to initiate next summer, will focus on long-term care facilities. Although much has been accomplished under the HAI Action Plan, much remains to be done to improve patient safety throughout the healthcare system.
An announcement of the request for public comments on the National Action Plan will be published in the Federal Register the week of April 23.