The Department of Health and Human Services has published a new action plan for reducing health care-associated infections in acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities and ambulatory surgical centers. The agency’s plan, the National Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections: Road Map to Elimination, introduces new targets for reducing HAIs based on data from 2015.
Previous targets for HAI reduction expired in 2013 with only one goal having been achieved — reducing central line-associated bloodstream infections by 50 percent. The new targets, which are set for 2020 and described as ambitious but achievable, call for:
- 50 percent reduction in CLABSI
- 50 percent reduction in catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI)
- 25 percent invasive Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) reduction
- 50 percent facility-onset MRSA reduction
- 50 percent Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) reduction
- 30 percent surgical site infection (SSI) reduction
- 30 percent reduction of Clostridium difficile hospitalizations
To learn more about the HAI Action Plan, click here.
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