Assessment of the occurrence of nosocomial infections in the Intensive Care Unit in the St. Lukas District Hospital in Tarnów in 2012-2016

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) are the cause of complications in the treatment process. The possibility of infecting a sick person in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is many times greater than in other hospital departments

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to investigate the epidemiological indicators and to determine the clinical types of HAI that are present in the ICU during the 5-year period in the St. Lukas District Hospital in Tarnów

MATERIALS AND METHODS: HAI has been detected and documented in patients in ICU in the years 2012-2016 by the use of the active monitoring method. We studied patients who spent over 2 days in ICU with a general profile. These studies were conducted in accordance with the methodology recommended by Healthcare-Associated Infections Surveillance Network (HAI-Net) European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

RESULTS: Among 886 patients who were hospitalized for a total of 6711 days, HAI was diagnosed in 195 patients (22.0% incidence rate), the incidence density rate was 29.1 per 1000 person-days of hospitalization. The rate for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) was 12.5 per 1000 ventilator days, for Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infection (CA-BSI) the rate was 8.2 per 1000 central line days, for Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CA-UTI) the rate was 3.3 per 1000 urinary catheter days. The average duration of a patient stay in ICU was 24 days (19 days for patients without HAI and 43 days for patients with HAI). The following microorganisms isolated from HAI were prevailing: Acinetobacter baumannii 46 (27%), Staphylococcus aureus 12 (21%), Enterococcus faecalis 17 (10%)

CONCLUSIONS: A five-year HAI study in ICU showed that the most common types of infections were bloodstream infections and pneumonia. The incidence rate of VAP remained at similar levels in subsequent years. The CA-BSI rates were reduced over the next three years of the study, but their rise in the last year can prove the lack of stability of the preventive actions. CA-UTI was detected twice less frequently, which can suggest poor detection of this type of infection