Healthcare associated infections (HAI) are infections that are acquired as a direct or indirect result of healthcare. HAI is one of the most common complications affecting patients in hospital and can adversely affect a patient's healthcare experience, including prolonged hospital stays and add considerably to the cost of delivering healthcare.
Surveillance to determine the incidence of HAI is important to help identify strategies to minimise the occurrence of these infections.
The Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare provides information about the role and types of HAI surveillance.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) National Quality Safety and Health Service (NQSHS) Standards require that health service organisations have a surveillance strategy for infections.
SA Health Local Health Network (LHN) mandatory HAI Surveillance requirements are as per the SA Health Service agreements and Performance framework and key performance indicators and the SA Health Infection Prevention and Control and Healthcare Associated Infection Surveillance and Reporting Policy.
The SA Health ICS coordinates the ICS HAI Surveillance Program. This program includes the collection, analysis and reporting of HAI surveillance data from LHN's and some private SA hospitals who voluntarily participate in the program.
Contributing hospitals collect HAI surveillance data according to standard surveillance definitions (see below) and then provide this monthly to the ICS. Data is checked by the ICS HAI Surveillance Coordinator and converted into rates of infection per 10,000 days of hospital care. Aggregate rates are calculated for the state and risk adjusted according to the type of hospital (size and patient acuity). the data is then provided to relevant contributors to the program as well as state and national stakeholders in the form of ad hoc, quarterly and annual reports.
The HAI Surveillance Program consists of the following standardised surveillance definitions. These are reviewed annually in consultation with contributors.
Data are reported back to the LHN's and private contributors quarterly for the purposes of data governance and quality improvement monitoring.
Data is discussed by the South Australian Infection Reference Group (SAIRG) on a quarterly basis.
Annual HAI surveillance reports are produced by the ICS for the following:
These reports include analysis of aggregated and de-identified data as provided by contributors from the LHNs (and some private hospitals voluntary contributing to the ICS HAI Surveillance Program).
The ICS HAI Surveillance Program annual reports are publicly available and published on the SA Health Healthcare infection statistics webpage.
The ACSQHC provides information and report national data as follows:
The Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society also report on national central-line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) national data.
NOTE: Healthcare facilities not participating to the SA Health ICS HAI Surveillance Program should refer to local policies and procedures for requirements relevant to their facility.
For further information on the SA Health surveillance program, contact SA Health's Infection Control Service.
