Major Research Report Finds Healthcare-Associated Infections Surging During Pandemic

A new research report is shedding light on a troubling problem emerging in hospitals, as the COVID-19 pandemic re-surges. As the text of a press release published on September 2 to the website of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America (SHEA) began, “After years of steady reductions in healthcare-associated infections, significantly higher rates of four out of six routinely tracked infections were observed in U.S. hospitals, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of data from the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Increases were attributed to factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including more and sicker patients requiring more frequent and longer use of catheters and ventilators as well as staffing and supply challenges.