HHS: New HAI Targets for 2020

This October, the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) announced ambitious, new targets for reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAI) in acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, and ambulatory surgical centers. The changes have been outlined in the National Action Plan to Prevent HAI: Road Map to Elimination. The HHS used HAI data from 2015 as a baseline, with the new target date set for 2020.

The previous targets for HAI reduction expired in 2013, with only the goal of reducing central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) by 50% achieved. All others saw partial success, save catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and Clostridium difficile (C. diff) hospitalizations. Between 2009 and 2014, there was no change in CAUTI reduction. Meanwhile, C. diff hospitalizations actually increased by 18%.

Now, the HHS’s new goals require:

• 50% CLABSI reduction
• 50% CAUTI reduction
• 25% invasive Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) reduction
• 50% facility-onset MRSA reduction
• 50% diff Infection (CDI) reduction
• 30% surgical site infection (SSI) reduction
• 30% reduction of diff hospitalizations

Facilities should have already started working on reducing CAUTIs, since The Joint Commission’s newest National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) on CAUTIs will go into effect on January 1, 2017.