Goals target catheters, surgery, and antibiotics

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention division of healthcare quality promotion — formerly the hospital infections program — is targeting seven goals over the next five years under its new long-term agenda to eliminate nosocomial infections from the health care system.

Summarized below, the goals are subject to further revision, but were essentially described as the following at a recent meeting of the CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee.

- Reduce intravascular catheter-associated complications by 50% in patients in health care settings.

- Reduce targeted surgical adverse events (e.g., high-risk or high-volume procedures such as coronary artery bypass) by 50%.

- Reduce targeted antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections by 50% by optimizing antimicrobial use and preventing transmission in health care settings.

- Reduce mortality and hospital admissions associated with respiratory infections by 50% in long-term care facilities.

- Eliminate microbiology laboratory errors (e.g., misidentification of patient, wrong susceptibility tests performed).

- Eliminate the adverse consequences of occupational injuries, including needlesticks, infections and the need for post-exposure prophylaxis.

- Achieve 100% compliance with the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for immunization of health care workers.