What are
Healthcare-Associated Infections?
Healthcare-Associated Infections (HCAI) are those infections
that develop as a direct result of any contact in a
healthcare setting. They occur in hospitals and in the
community; and affect both patients and healthcare workers.
There are many causes of HCAI, but they are most commonly
caused by the contaminated hands of healthcare workers,
contaminated medical devices, and a failure of staff to
comply with local policies, procedures and guidelines.
MRSA
In recent years there has been a lot of media publicity
surrounding drug-resistant infections such as
Meticillin-resistant
Staphlococcusaureus (MRSA). Many newspapers have
referred to MRSA as the 'Super Bug' or 'Killer Bug' and
sometimes focused on drug-resistant infections as they were
the only HCAI.
However, while it is true that MRSA and other drug-resistant
infections are currently a major problem for many healthcare
services around the world, there are many other infections
that are just as harmful and just as important to control.
For example,
Clostridium difficile is a common cause of diahorrea in
hospitals, Acinetobacter causes HCAI particularly in
patients in intensive care units, and noravirus causes
sickness and vomiting.
The effects of HCAI on patients
Every year at least 300,000 patients develop an HCAI and it
is estimated that around 1 in 10 patients pick up an
infection during their stay in a UK hospital. These
infections are often difficult to treat and they can
complicate illnesses, cause distress to patients and their
family, and in some cases may even lead to death.
If a patient gets an HCAI, it may:
- Make their existing medical condition worse;
- Make their stay in hospital longer;
- Cause them pain, depression and stress
- Lead to a loss of earnings; and
- Reduce their chances of successful recovery.
On average,
patients with an HCAI have been found to be around 7 times more
likely to die in hospital than uninfected patients. It is estimated
that as many as 5,000 patients die each year in the UK as a direct
result of HCAI and it is one of the factors in another 15,000
deaths.
IMPACT on the UK NHS As well as affecting patients, HCAI is also a serious burden on the
NHS. These infections are costing the NHS an estimated £1 billion a
year and they are having a major impact on the availability of beds
because infected patients have to spend, on average, an extra 11
days in hospital. Furthermore, infected patients cost 3 times more
to treat than uninfected patients and infections are becoming
difficult to treat because of an increase in antimicrobial
resistance.
Some of the other costs to the NHS include: -
Staff workload; - Treatment for staff; and - Extra costs.
Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infection Unfortunately, not all HCAI can be prevented as they are often the
price we pay for advances in medicine. But with good practice and
careful hygiene it has been estimated that around 15% to 30% could
be avoided.
Everyone working in healthcare and healthcare research has a role to
play in helping to prevent the spread of infection. And as such it
is our responsibility to do everything we can to protect patients
and staff.
