The Burden of Hospital Acquired Infections on Health Systems
What is a Hospital Acquired Infection?
A Hospital-Acquired Infection (HAI) (also know as a Healthcare-Associated Infection (HCAI) or nosocomial infection) is defined by WHO as ‘an infection acquired in hospital by a patient who was admitted for a reason other than that infection1‘. This includes infections acquired in the hospital but appearing after discharge, and also occupational infections among staff at the facility.
To minimise the threat posed by HAIs there are entire departments within hospitals dedicated to infection prevention and control. The scale of the challenges these teams face was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic which highlighted the importance of having a robust infection control policy. At one stage in England the rate of nosocomial COVID-19 infection was as high as 25%2, meaning 1 in 4 patients who were being diagnosed were originally admitted to hospital for a separate reason.