Elk Grove Village, IL—(ENEWSPF)—September 8, 2014. Children who are hospitalized and then pick up an infection face longer hospital stays and poorer health outcomes, and large-scale quality improvement efforts have focused on lowering these health care-associated infections.
A study in the October 2014 Pediatrics presents evidence that certain types of infections decreased significantly between 2007 and 2012. The cohort study, “Health Care-Associated Infections Among Critically Ill Children in the U.S., 2007-2012,” published online Sept. 8, tracks data on central line-associated bloodstream infections, ventilator-assisted pneumonias, and catheter-associated urinary tract infections in 173 hospitals’ neonatal intensive care units and in 64 hospitals’ pediatric intensive care units. Researchers found substantial declines in some infections during the study period, including a 61 percent decline in central line-associated bloodstream infections among both neonates and children. Ventilator-assisted pneumonias decreased 50 percent among neonates and 76 percent among children. Rates of catheter-associated urinary tract infections remained unchanged over the study period, though a change in the surveillance definition for this infection may have played a role.
Study authors conclude U.S. hospitals have made substantial improvements in preventing hospital-associated infections in children in the past several years, and that this must remain a prominent quality improvement goal.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 62,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit www.aap.org.
Source: www.aap.org
