Background: The purpose of this study is to know the healthcare-associated infection (HAI)s in small and medium sized hospitals, less than 400 beds in KOREA.
Methods: We surveyed web based by CDC definition in 27 hospitals from August to October 2010. Total 52 general wards and 23 ICUs.
Results: The HAIs rate was 1.18( 319 HAIs/269,436 patients days, CI 1.05-1.32)/1,000 patient-days. Urinary tract infection was the most common(52.4%)in this study, flowwed by pneumonia (18.9%), bloodstream infections (14.2%), surgical site infection (7.9%) and others (6.6%). There were 76.5% of device associated infections in UTI, 46.7% in BSI, and 18.3% in pneumonia. The rate of HAIs in ICU was higher than that of in general ward (4.6 vs 0.9/1,000 patient-days). However, the indwelling catheter associated urinary tract infection was lower in ICU (2.6 vs 4.4/ 1,000device days). There were no significant differences in central line-associated blood stream infection (1.5 vs 1.8) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (3.0 vs 0.0). The common microorganisms were E. coli (19.8%), S. aureus (13.1%), and P. areuginosa (12.7%) in HAIs. Moreover, 90.9% of S. aureus were resistant to methicillin, and 38.2% of P. aeruginosa and 44.4% of A. baumannii were resistant to imipenem.
Conclusion: The characteristics of HAIs in small and medium sized hospitals differed from large hospital. That will be contributed to the decision making of governance policy for infection control and to provide comparable data for these hospitals.