National CLABSI rate increased significantly during pandemic
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The rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections in acute care hospitals increased significantly during the pandemic, researchers reported in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
David T. Kuhar, MD, team lead for hospital infection prevention in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, noted a several things that have the potential to increase central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), including the need to prone ventilated patients with COVID-19, which can disrupt central line dressings.
“It is important that clinicians are aware of the national CLABSI increase — as many may not be aware — and consider actions they can take in their own facility that can help address the increase, particularly as supply and staffing challenges improve,” Kuhar told Healio.
Kuhar and colleagues analyzed patient data from 13,136 inpatients in 2,986 acute-care hospitals. They compared standard infection ratios of CLABSIs from quarter 2, defined as April, May and June, of 2019 and quarter 2 of 2020.
A total of 936 of the facilities had one or more predicted CLABSIs. The rate of CLABSIs spiked from 0.68 in 2019 to 0.87 in 2020 — a total increase of 28% (95% CI, 20-33.6). Critical care units experienced the highest increase at 39% (0.75 to 1.04), followed by ward locations at 13%.
“The results of this analysis serve as an important reminder of how tenuous the reductions are in health care-associated infections that have been achieved over the last 10 years,” Kuhar said. “The unprecedented demands that have been placed on health care facilities and health care providers over the last year have been associated with a number of unfortunate outcomes, including this increase in CLABSIs. It will be important to continue to work to follow and address these infections to ensure that continued improvements are again realized as the situation in many health care facilities continues to improve.”
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