Surveillance

People who are in hospital are at greater risk of developing infections for a variety of reasons.

These include:

• a weakened immune system;
• increased use of antibiotics;
• surgical and medical procedures that cause breaks in the skin; and
• transmission of bacteria from one person to another due to close contact with other patients and health-care workers.

The Infection Prevention and Control program monitors for infections throughout the organization as a part of ongoing initiatives to improve patient safety.

Several patient safety indicators that are tracked and reported on a quarterly basis by Eastern Health include:

• Clostridium difficile infection (CDI)
• Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)
• Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus (VRE)

Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI): an infection that develops during the course of a hospital stay.

Surveillance Statistics for HAIs

Table 1: Rate of healthcare-associated Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) per 10,000 patient/resident days by fiscal quarter

Note: Most recent rate of healthcare-associated CDI in acute care (2020) was 3.80 per 10,000 patient days (Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, 2022).

Table 2: Rate of healthcare-associated Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) per 10,000 patient/resident days by fiscal year

Note: Most recent rate of healthcare-associated CDI in acute care (2020) was 3.80 per 10,000 patient days (Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, 2022).

Table 3: Rate of healthcare-associated Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection per 10,000 patient/resident days by fiscal quarter

Note: Most recent national rate of healthcare-associated MRSA in acute care (2017) was 1.65 per 10,000 patient days (Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, 2019).

Table 4: Rate of healthcare-associated Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection per 10,000 patient/resident days by fiscal year

Note: Most recent national rate of healthcare-associated MRSA in acute care (2017) was 1.65 per 10,000 patient days (Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, 2019).

Note:

• Rates are a measure of disease frequency in a population. In this case, rates are calculated by dividing the number of cases by the number of patient or resident days and multiplying by 10,000. For example, if there were 2 cases and 1000 patient days, the rate would be 20 per
  10, 000 patient days.