Reducing the number of patients who develop hospital acquired conditions while in our care is a major component of our patient safety initiatives at Emory Healthcare. Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI) is one type of hospital acquired condition in which a bacterial or fungal infection develops in patients with a central venous catheter and no other identifiable sources for the infection. There are many ways to measure CLABSI currently and it is difficult to compare the CLABSI rates among different types of hospitals. For example, we measure CLABSI in all inpatients, while many hospitals only measure CLABSI in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Patients with severe and complex illnesses are at higher risk of such infections. However, these data are not “adjusted” for these factors. Therefore, most importantly we strive to see continuous improvements in the rate of these infections in patients at our hospitals.
