CDC reports 50 percent drop in CLABSIs since 2008

Posted on: 1/17/18

Hospitals reduced central line-associated bloodstream infections by 50 percent between 2008 and 2016, according to a new progress summary by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report also shows progress by hospitals in reducing other health care-associated infections, including catheter-associated urinary tract, surgical site, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile infections.

Over the years, Oklahoma hospitals have participated in several different quality initiatives to work to eliminate CLABSI. Hospitals have implemented interventions that are now standards of care to prevent CLABSI. The most recent statewide report from CDC indicates that from the 2008 baseline through 2014, Oklahoma hospitals decreased the rate of CLABSI by 57 percent.

The AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust affiliate has been working with the CDC to reduce CLABSI, CAUTI, C difficile and MRSA infections in targeted acute care hospitals. HRET also has worked with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Comprehensive Unit Based Safety Program to prevent CLABSI and CAUTI infections, and with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks to continue to reduce hospital-acquired conditions in the Medicare program.

(AHA Today, Jan. 11, 2018)