Prevalence of nosocomial infection in long-term-care Veterans Administration medical centers.

Prevention and control of nosocomial infections are major goals of institutional risk-management programs. However, variations in criteria and denominator parameters make comparison of rates across settings difficult. This study addressed those problems by reporting criteria used to identify infections and applying the same denominator across long-term-care facilities. Findings demonstrated a 9.8% prevalence rate for nosocomial infections in four long-term-care VA facilities. Most of the identified infections were consistent with Centers for Disease Control definitions of nosocomial infections. The most frequent indicators of nosocomial infections that did not fully meet those definitions were (1) documented symptoms, (2) antibiotic therapy, and (3) physician diagnosis.