The Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care has recently developed 16 “Hospital acquired complications” (HACs) that have been published on their website.
Whilst the website provides information on the development of these HACs, it does not specifically detail their purpose. One of the 16 HACs is “Healthcare Associated Infection”, which is comprised of eight different HAI “diagnoses”, including “multiresistant organisms” and “gastrointestinal infections”.
There is clear evidence, both locally and internationally, that coding data does not accurately identify HAIs, and any attempt to do so would misrepresent the truth.
Successful infection prevention efforts rely on valid data. If the data are not accurate, then not only do we run the risk of misdirecting interventions and misinterpreting the outcome of interventions, we are also wasting precious resources.
It is a wonder why, in this field where so often we don’t have good evidence for certain practices, that when good evidence does exist, it still does not seem to influence policy and practice.
Phil
Declaration: Philip Russo is a member of the ACSQHC HAI Advisory Committee.