The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published its 2018 Healthcare-Associated Infection Progress Report. The report provides year-to-year progress (2017 to 2018) on the prevention of key healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in acute care hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities.

The HAI Progress Report consists of national and state-by-state summaries of HAIs across the settings. More specifically, it provides data from the National Healthcare Safety Network on central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), ventilator-associated events (VAEs), surgical site infections (SSIs), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream events and Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) events. 

While progress was achieved in some areas, more significant improvements are needed in others.

National highlights from the 2018 HAI Progress Report include the following:

• Acute Care Hospitals: Significant decrease in CLABSIs, CAUTIs and C. difficile infections. No significant change in MRSA bacteremia, abdominal hysterectomy SSIs, colon surgery SSIs and VAEs.

• Long-Term Acute Care Hospitals: Significant decrease in CAUTIs, MRSA bacteremia and C. difficile infections. No significant change in VAEs.

• Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities: Significant decrease in C. difficile infections. No significant change in CLABSIs, CAUTIs and MRSA bacteremia.

Working toward the reduction and eventual elimination of HAIs should be a priority of all healthcare organizations. Data indicates that on any given day, about 1 in 31 hospital patients has at least one HAI. They lead to the preventable loss of tens of thousands of lives and cost the U.S. healthcare system billions of dollars annually.