In this study, data from a point-prevalence survey of health care–associated infections in U.S. hospitals in 2015 were compared with survey data from 2011. Areas for improvement are suggested.
Clostridioides difficile
infection is a major cause of nosocomial and community illness. In this report from the Emerging Infections Program, associated with the U.S. CDC, the national burden of
C. ...difficile
infection is estimated from 2011 through 2017. In 2017, an estimated 462,100 cases of
C. difficile
infection occurred.
Hospital-acquired infections cause substantial morbidity in inpatient settings. On the basis of a 1-day point-prevalence survey, CDC investigators report the burden and types of health ...care–associated infection in 183 hospitals across 10 geographically diverse states.
Elimination of health care–associated infections is a priority of the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Considerable success in prevention has been reported for some infections, particularly central-catheter–associated bloodstream infections.
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Continued improvements in patient safety depend on maintaining a comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of health care–associated infections. Currently, no single U.S. surveillance system can provide estimates of the burden of all types of such infections across acute care patient populations. The most recent estimate produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published in 2007 — 1.7 million health care–associated infections per year — relied . . .
Clostridium difficile
is an important cause of hospital-associated diarrhea. In this report from the CDC, the U.S. burden of
C. difficile
infection is estimated at nearly 500,000 cases and 30,000 ...deaths in 2011, with an increasing burden among nonhospitalized persons.
Changes in the epidemiology of
Clostridium difficile
infections have occurred since the emergence of the North American pulsed-field gel electrophoresis type 1 (NAP1) strain, which has been responsible for geographically dispersed hospital-associated outbreaks.
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In the United States, hospitalizations for
C. difficile
infection among nonpregnant adults doubled from 2000 through 2010 and were projected to continue to increase in 2011 and 2012, especially as laboratories transition to more sensitive
C. difficile
assays, such as the nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT).
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On the basis of data from U.S. death certificates,
C. difficile
infection is the leading cause of gastroenteritis-associated death . . .
IMPORTANCE Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has been increasingly reported among healthy individuals in the community. Recent data suggest that community-associated CDI represents one-third of ...all C difficile cases. The epidemiology and potential sources of C difficile in the community are not fully understood. OBJECTIVES To determine epidemiological and clinical characteristics of community-associated CDI and to explore potential sources of C difficile acquisition in the community. DESIGN AND SETTING Active population-based and laboratory-based CDI surveillance in 8 US states. PARTICIPANTS Medical records were reviewed and interviews performed to assess outpatient, household, and food exposures among patients with community-associated CDI (ie, toxin or molecular assay positive for C difficile and no overnight stay in a health care facility within 12 weeks). Molecular characterization of C difficile isolates was performed. Outpatient health care exposure in the prior 12 weeks among patients with community-associated CDI was a priori categorized into the following 3 levels: no exposure, low-level exposure (ie, outpatient visit with physician or dentist), or high-level exposure (ie, surgery, dialysis, emergency or urgent care visit, inpatient care with no overnight stay, or health care personnel with direct patient care). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Prevalence of outpatient health care exposure among patients with community-associated CDI and identification of potential sources of C difficile by level of outpatient health care exposure. RESULTS Of 984 patients with community-associated CDI, 353 (35.9%) did not receive antibiotics, 177 (18.0%) had no outpatient health care exposure, and 400 (40.7%) had low-level outpatient health care exposure. Thirty-one percent of patients without antibiotic exposure received proton pump inhibitors. Patients having CDI with no or low-level outpatient health care exposure were more likely to be exposed to infants younger than 1 year (P = .04) and to household members with active CDI (P = .05) compared with those having high-level outpatient health care exposure. No association between food exposure or animal exposure and level of outpatient health care exposure was observed. North American pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (NAP) 1 was the most common (21.7%) strain isolated; NAP7 and NAP8 were uncommon (6.7%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Most patients with community-associated CDI had recent outpatient health care exposure, and up to 36% would not be prevented by reduction of antibiotic use only. Our data support evaluation of additional strategies, including further examination of C difficile transmission in outpatient and household settings and reduction of proton pump inhibitor use.
Background
Risk factors common to nursing home (NH) residents are potentially not fully captured by the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). The unique challenges faced by hospitals that ...disproportionately serve NH residents who are at greater risk of readmissions have not been studied.
Methods
Using 100% Medicare Provider Analysis and Review File and the Minimum Data Set from 2010–2013, we constructed a measure of hospital share of NH‐originating hospitalizations (NOHs). We defined hospital share of NOHs as the proportion of inpatient stays by patients aged 65 or older who were directly admitted from NHs. To evaluate the impact of the share of NOHs on readmission penalties, we categorized hospitals into quartiles according to their share of NOHs and estimated the differences in the adjusted penalties across hospital quartiles after accounting for hospital characteristics, market characteristics and state fixed effects. We repeated the analyses for the penalties incurred in each year between 2015 and 2019.
Results
Hospitals varied substantially in the share of NOHs (median interquartile range, 11.3% 8.2%–15.1%), with limited variation over time. In 2015, hospitals in the highest quartile of NOH received on average 0.58% Medicare payment reduction compared to 0.44% reduction among those in the lowest quartile (32.9% higher penalties, p < 0.001). The increase in penalties continued to grow in 2017 and 2018 when the HRRP expanded to include additional target conditions (47.3% and 66.7%, respectively, p < 0.001 for both). Although the effect diminished in 2019 following the additional adjustment for hospital's dual‐eligible share, hospitals in the highest quartile of NOH still incurred 43.0% (p < 0.001) higher penalties than those in the lowest quartile.
Conclusions
Hospitals varied considerably in their share of NOHs. Hospitals having a higher share of NOHs were disproportionately penalized for excess readmissions, even under the revised policy that adjusts for the share of dual‐eligible admissions.
IMPORTANCE: Inappropriate antimicrobial drug use is associated with adverse events in hospitalized patients and contributes to the emergence and spread of resistant pathogens. Targeting effective ...interventions to improve antimicrobial use in the acute care setting requires understanding hospital prescribing practices. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of and describe the rationale for antimicrobial use in participating hospitals. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: One-day prevalence surveys were conducted in acute care hospitals in 10 states between May and September 2011. Patients were randomly selected from each hospital’s morning census on the survey date. Data collectors reviewed medical records retrospectively to gather data on antimicrobial drugs administered to patients on the survey date and the day prior to the survey date, including reasons for administration, infection sites treated, and whether treated infections began in community or health care settings. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Antimicrobial use prevalence, defined as the number of patients receiving antimicrobial drugs at the time of the survey divided by the total number of surveyed patients. RESULTS: Of 11 282 patients in 183 hospitals, 5635 (49.9%; 95% CI, 49.0%-50.9%) were administered at least 1 antimicrobial drug; 77.5% (95% CI, 76.6%-78.3%) of antimicrobial drugs were used to treat infections, most commonly involving the lower respiratory tract, urinary tract, or skin and soft tissues, whereas 12.2% (95% CI, 11.5%-12.8%) were given for surgical and 5.9% (95% CI, 5.5%-6.4%) for medical prophylaxis. Of 7641 drugs to treat infections, the most common were parenteral vancomycin (1103, 14.4%; 95% CI, 13.7%-15.2%), ceftriaxone (825, 10.8%; 95% CI, 10.1%-11.5%), piperacillin-tazobactam (788, 10.3%; 95% CI, 9.6%-11.0%), and levofloxacin (694, 9.1%; 95% CI, 8.5%-9.7%). Most drugs administered to treat infections were given for community-onset infections (69.0%; 95% CI, 68.0%-70.1%) and to patients outside critical care units (81.6%; 95% CI, 80.4%-82.7%). The 4 most common treatment antimicrobial drugs overall were also the most common drugs used for both community-onset and health care facility–onset infections and for infections in patients in critical care and noncritical care locations. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cross-sectional evaluation of antimicrobial use in US hospitals, use of broad-spectrum antimicrobial drugs such as piperacillin-tazobactam and drugs such as vancomycin for resistant pathogens was common, including for treatment of community-onset infections and among patients outside critical care units. Further work is needed to understand the settings and indications for which reducing antimicrobial use can be most effectively and safely accomplished.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is intrinsically resistant to many antimicrobial drugs, making carbapenems crucial in clinical management. During July-October 2015 in the United States, we piloted ...laboratory-based surveillance for carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CRPA) at sentinel facilities in Georgia, New Mexico, Oregon, and Tennessee, and population-based surveillance in Monroe County, NY. An incident case was the first P. aeruginosa isolate resistant to antipseudomonal carbapenems from a patient in a 30-day period from any source except the nares, rectum or perirectal area, or feces. We found 294 incident cases among 274 patients. Cases were most commonly identified from respiratory sites (120/294; 40.8%) and urine (111/294; 37.8%); most (223/280; 79.6%) occurred in patients with healthcare facility inpatient stays in the prior year. Genes encoding carbapenemases were identified in 3 (2.3%) of 129 isolates tested. The burden of CRPA was high at facilities under surveillance, but carbapenemase-producing CRPA were rare.
Few data suggest that Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) detected by toxin enzyme immunoassay (EIA) are more severe and have worse outcomes than those detected by nucleic acid amplification ...tests (NAATs) only. We compared toxin- positive and NAAT-positive-only CDI across geographically diverse sites.
A case was defined as a positive C. difficile test in a person ≥1 year old with no positive tests in the prior 8 weeks. Cases were detected during 2014-2015 by a testing algorithm (specimens initially tested by glutamate dehydrogenase and toxin EIA; if discordant results, specimens were reflexed to NAAT) and classified as toxin positive or NAAT positive only. Medical charts were reviewed. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to compare CDI-related complications, recurrence, and 30-day mortality between the 2 groups.
Of 4878 cases, 2160 (44.3%) were toxin positive and 2718 (55.7%) were NAAT positive only. More toxin-positive than NAAT-positive-only cases were aged ≥65 years (48.2% vs 38.0%; P < .0001), had ≥3 unformed stools for ≥1 day (43.9% vs 36.6%; P < .0001), and had white blood cell counts ≥15 000 cells/µL (31.4% vs 21.4%; P < .0001). In multivariable analysis, toxin positivity was associated with recurrence (adjusted odds ratio aOR, 1.89; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.61-2.23), but not with CDI-related complications (aOR, 0.91; 95% CI, .67-1.23) or 30-day mortality (aOR, 0.95; 95% CI, .73-1.24).
Toxin-positive CDI is more severe, but there were no differences in adjusted CDI-related complication and mortality rates between toxin-positive and NAAT-positive-only CDI that were detected by an algorithm that utilized an initial glutamate dehydrogenase screening test.
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