5 Conclusions

This 12th annual report demonstrates that Pennsylvania hospitals continue to reduce HAIs; however, more work needs to be done. Both Pennsylvania and CDC aim toward a goal of zero HAIs. Hospitals should continue their efforts to reduce HAIs by implementing evidence-based guidelines and multifaceted infection prevention interventions that have been proven to prevent HAIs. Patients and families should proactively ask questions to health care staff about ways to prevent infections during hospitalizations, including asking providers to perform hand hygiene (cleaning) before providing care and touching patients and items in their room. Hospitals can continue their efforts to follow evidence-based guidelines, such as removal of catheters when no longer medically necessary, implementation of antibiotic stewardship programs, education for patients to care for themselves after leaving the hospital, and education for staff and patients about ways to prevent HAIs.

This report used the same statistical methods and reference population as Pennsylvanian HAI reports from 2016 through 2018. HAI statistics from this report can be compared with data from those reports when the same level of aggregation is used (e.g., state level, hospital type level, or hospital level). These data can also be compared with SIR values published by CDC that use the 2015 national baseline as the reference group.

Pennsylvania hospitals are encouraged to use available free consultative resources from the Patient Safety Authority (PSA), Quality Insights, and the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania to implement evidence-based practices to reduce HAIs. Outreach to similar hospitals to inquire about the method used to achieve low HAIs is encouraged.

It is important to note that the Department works collaboratively with a variety of stakeholder organizations to promote health care quality and reduce the incidence of HAIs. In addition, two governmental partners, the PSA and the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), have specific roles under Act 52 and work closely with the Department on HAI prevention and control. Readers of this annual report are encouraged to examine companion reports published by PSA and PHC4. The PSA annual report for 2019⁴⁸ describes serious events, incidents and deaths in the acute care setting. The PHC4 report titled, “The Impact of Healthcare-Associated Infections in Pennsylvania, 2010,” examines costs, mortality, readmissions, and underlying health conditions associated with HAIs. PHC4 also published reports in 2019 and 2020 which evaluated mortality among children and adults respectively who had cardiac surgery. They also authored a 2019 report regarding complication rates following knee replacement, hip replacement, and CBG surgery (Common Procedures report) that occurred between 2016 and 2018. These can be found at http://www.phc4.org.