The following is a summary of “Evaluation of hospital-onset bloodstream infections compared to central line…associated bloodstream infections at an acute, tertiary care hospital,” published in the October 2023 issue of Infectious Control by Gurney, et al.

As of now, central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) is the standard for HAI (hospital-associated infection) monitoring and successful measures have greatly decreased the number of cases in recent years. However, bloodstream infections (BSI) are still a major cause of illness and death in hospitals. Hospital-onset bloodstream infection (HOBSI), which includes both central and peripheral line monitoring, might be a better way to spot BSI that can be avoided. Their goal is to discover what happens when the researchers change how HOBSIs are supervised by looking at how often BSIs happen using the National Health Care and Safety Network LabID and BSI definitions compared to CLABSI.

The Researchers used electronic medical records to check if each blood culture met the HOBSI criteria based on the LabID and BSI standards from the National Health Care and Safety Network. First, they found the incidence rates (IRs) for each definition for 10,000 patient days. Then, they compared them to the CLABSI rate for the same time period.

When the LabID standard was used, the IR of HOBSI was 10.25. The BSI standard helped us find an IR of 3.77. For the same period, CLABSI’s IR was 1.84. Even when secondary BSIs are removed, the HOBSI rate is still twice as high as the CLABSI rate. HOBSI tracking is a better way to see how well treatments work because it is a more specific sign of BSI than CLABSI.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0196655323001608