National Trends in Healthcare-Associated Infections for Five Common Cardiovascular Conditions

Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are generally preventable causes of increased cost, morbidity, and mortality. Further, HAI carry penalties in the era of hospital value-based care. However, very little is known about the incidence and outcomes of HAI among patients hospitalized with common cardiovascular conditions. Using a national database, we identified adults aged ≥18 years hospitalized with 5 common cardiovascular conditions, including heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass grafting, cardiogenic shock, and atrial fibrillation or flutter. We assessed for temporal trends in incidence, cost, length of stay (LOS), and mortality associated with ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated bloodstream infection, and Clostridium difficile infections. Between 2008 and 2015, we identified 159,021 hospitalizations ≥1 HAI (49.6% heart failure, 20.4% acute myocardial infarction, 10.5% coronary artery bypass grafting, 18.6% cardiogenic shock, and 11.9% atrial fibrillation or flutter). Clostridium difficile infections (75.4%) were the most common followed by catheter-associated urinary tract infections (15.1%), ventilator-associated pneumonia (7.9%), and central line-associated bloodstream infection (3.1%). Nearly half of the patients (46.3%) with HAI required discharge to a skilled care facility compared with 15.7% of patients who did not. After propensity matching, HAI remained associated with an increased LOS (4.9 vs 9.6 days, p <0.0001), total hospital charges ($79,227 vs $50,699, p <0.0001), and in-hospital mortality (13% vs 10.4%, p <0.0001) compared with patients who did not acquire a HAI. In conclusion, patients with cardiovascular disease acquiring a HAI had substantially higher costs, LOS, and mortality.