Point Prevalence of Hospital-Acquired Infections in Ege University Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of hospital-acquired or healthcare-associated infections (HAI) varies from country to country even between different units of the same hospital. By the help of prevalence studies, HAI rates can be demonstrated in a wider perspective and, based on these data; infection control measures may be reevaluated. In this study, we investigated the HAI prevalence in hospitalized patients on 23 December 2013 at our tertiary-care educational hospital. Materials and Methods: On 23 December 2013, patients diagnosed with HAI (by using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria) by infectious diseases and clinical microbiology specialists in our 1850-bedded (including 1.516 adult, 334 pediatric and a total of 328 intensive care unit beds) tertiary-care hospital, were evaluated in terms of underlying disease, risk factors, implementation initiatives, focus of infection and causative microorganisms. Results: The number of patients hospitalized on 23 December 2014 was 1.470, the prevalence of HAI was found to be 7.21%. The most common type of HAI was pneumonia followed by urinary tract infection, bacteremia, surgical site infections and intra-abdominal infections. Conclusion: We conclude that repeated HAI prevalence studies at appropriate intervals are very useful for taking effective infection control measures and follow-up of HAI in large hospitals like our tertiary care hospital where active surveillance could not be done in all clinics.

Keywords

• Nosocomial infection
• point prevalence
• surveillance
• healthcare-associated infection
• hospital acquired infection