Study Reports HAIs are on the Rise

Link: Infection Control Today – Study Reports HAIs are on the Rise.

“Research shows that there is a wide disparity in the number of HAIs identified using administrative codes and those identified through validated infection surveillance systems,” states Sebazco. An abstract presented during the April 2005 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America (SHEA) annual conference reported that data abstracted from hospital billing records identified 943 patients with presumed HAI from administrative codes versus 239 cases using validated HAI surveillance. Another 131 infections identified by validated infection surveillance were not captured from billing records. The abstract authors concluded that further investigation of the use of administrative/billing databases for HAI surveillance is needed.