[Regular prevalence surveys of hospital-acquired infections as part of the process of accreditation].

INTRODUCTION

All Danish hospitals are obliged to start a process of accreditation during 2009. On this background and in order to create a baseline for hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) as well as focus on infection control, we have initiated semi-annually prevalence surveys on HAIs in the North Denmark Region (RN).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Prevalence surveys were carried out in all somatic hospital wards in RN, twice in 2006 and once in 2007. The four most important HAIs were registered: urinary tract infection (UTI), pneumonia, deep surgical site infection and septicaemia. Moreover, the use of permanent and intermittent urinary tract catheters was registered.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence rate in the three surveys varied between 5.2 and 7.1%. The number of patients included varied from 93.7%-98.9% of available beds. The prevalence rate for deep surgical site infections increased from the 1st to the 2nd survey, although not significantly. In the 1st survey a significantly greater number of patients with urinary tract catheters had UTIs, compared to patients without. The two later surveys only showed a trend towards increasing UTIs among patients with urinary tract catheters compared to those without.

CONCLUSIONS

Repeated prevalence surveys proved to be a quick and resource-economic way of monitoring HAIs. The registration indicated a high degree of compliance among personnel. The increase in the prevalence rate of deep surgical site infections may help us find indications for further investigation by means of a time-limited incidence survey. The possible increase in UTIs among patients with urinary tract catheters may stimulate us to evaluate the indications for catheter use.