Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a major public health problem in the United States. HAI are the most common complication affecting hospitalized patients, with between 5 and 10 percent of inpatients acquiring one or more infections during their hospitalization.1 Overall an estimated 2 million hospital-acquired HAI occur each year in the United States, accounting for an estimated 90,000 deaths and adding $4.5 to $5.7 billion in healthcare costs. Experts generally believe that at least 20-30% of such infections are preventable.
The occurrence of HAIs has been of growing concern among consumers, healthcare professionals, providers, and purchasers, who are increasingly seeking information about HAI, in particular those associated with the hospital setting. Most hospitals and other healthcare facilities, however, do not publicly report HAI data and there are no national standards for public reporting. Since 2003, seven states have passed legislation mandating the reporting of HAI data, and more than 30 other states have similar legislation pending, with varying reporting requirements,2 making it impossible to compare or aggregate the reported data.
The NQF proposes to work with the full range of stakeholders to identify performance measures that could be used across the spectrum of healthcare settings to provide meaningful information to consumers, purchasers, providers, healthcare professionals, quality improvement organizations, and researchers about healthcare-associated infections.
This project, like all NQF activities, involves the active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders. The project will be guided by a Steering Committee and assisted by six Technical Advisory Panels as follows: 1) Intravascular Catheters and Bloodstream Infections TAP; 2) Indwelling Catheters and Urinary Tract Infections TAP; 3) Ventilators and Respiratory Infections TAP; 4) Surgical Site Infections TAP; 5) Pediatric TAP; and 6) Reporting and Implementation TAP. Agreement around the recommendations will be developed through NQF’s formal consensus development process.
Primary support for this project is provided by the Texas Medical Institute of Technology (TMIT), a not for-profit medical research organization dedicated to drive adoption of clinical solutions in patient safety and healthcare performance improvement. Additional support is being provided by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).
For more information, contact Merilyn D. Francis, RN, MPP at 202.783.1300 or info@qualityforum.org.
1 Burke JP. Infection control – a problem for patient safety. NEJM 2003; 348: 651-656
2 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. Available at: http://www.apic.org. Accessed March 29, 2005.