Purpose of review: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a leading cause of preventable harm in US hospitals. Hospitals are required to conduct surveillance and report selected HAIs, including central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, colon and abdominal hysterectomy surgical-site infections, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, and Clostridioides difficile infections, to the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network.
Recent findings: Up until the COVID-19 pandemic, there was significant progress in reducing HAIs. However, the pandemic resulted in extraordinary challenges for infection prevention in hospitals. Increases in HAIs were observed throughout 2020 and 2021. The Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals has recently been updated and provides common sense evidenced-based strategies to reduce HAIs.
Summary: The purpose of this review is to highlight important changes since the 2014 Compendium.
Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.