What is the Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals?
Health care-associated infections affect about one out of every 31 hospitalized patients in the U.S., causing significant morbidity, mortality and excess health care costs (Yokoe, August 2023). Notably, after 20 years of declining rates in the U.S., the COVID-19 pandemic saw notable increases in health care-associated infections across the board (Weiner-Lastinger, January 2022). Reasons for this included increased device utilization, demands on critical care capacity, altered staffing practices and competing demands on infection prevention teams.
The newly-updated compendium, completed in August 2023, provides revised recommendations on best practices to prevent six of the most common health care-associated infections: catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated bloodstream infections, surgical site infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, health care-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections and Clostridioides difficile infections.
Developing updates to the compendium is led by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America with the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, the American Hospital Association and The Joint Commission, and with major contributions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Surgical Infection Society.
What’s new in the latest version?
The 2022-’23 update includes a new article dedicated to the use of implementation strategies to put HAI prevention recommendations into practice. The recommendations within the compendium are developed from scientific research findings, evaluations and expert consensus as well as practical and implementation-based considerations. These are divided into “essential practices” that should be adopted by all acute care hospitals and “additional approaches” that can be considered for use if the essential practices are not as effective as needed.
The compendium helps health care teams strengthen and optimize infection prevention infrastructure to center patient safety. The recommendations are evidence-based and sustainable and are meant to be used by any member of the health care team. If a hospital is struggling with certain health care-associated infections more than others, specific recommendations are available. The compendium also has a section on hand hygiene and implementation with cross-cutting value.
With these new updates, the compendium’s guidance will continue to be a tool for delivering resilient care that protects patients even in the setting of a pandemic.