The historically longstanding idea of an acceptable Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI) rate continues to persist.
Infection prevention committees hold meetings to review trends and react to negative outliers. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has placed an increased focus on infections with Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) calculation that is based on an “expected” number of infections.
Clinically, infected patients entering the hospital do create an environment of high risk for transmission. The concept of “zero” breaks the mindset of traditional expectations so hospitals can think about creating an environment where, despite the fact that some patients already have infections, those who don’t can be spared of transmission.
This paper discusses why hospitals that achieve the best results have set their goals with a steady drive towards absolute zero HAIs.