Related Experiment Videos
Hospital-acquired blood stream infections in New Zealand
M R Jones1, A Wimmers, J Cunningham
1Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit, Wellington Hospital.
Aim:
To determine the number and rates of hospital-acquired blood stream infections in New Zealand public hospitals.
Method:
From October 1994 to December 1996 each of the 23 Crown Health Enterprises (CHEs) provided the Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit with data on the number of episodes of hospital-acquired blood stream infection (HA-BSI) and the number of inpatient admissions.
Results:
During the 27 month study period, 3049 episodes of HA-BSI occurred in an inpatient population of 1 300 892 giving a national average rate of 0.23%. HA-BSI rates were highest for the six tertiary level, metropolitan CHEs (range 0.19% - 0.56%) in which 79% of all HA-BSIs occurred.
Conclusion:
The HA-BSI rate for New Zealand is within the range that would be expected for a developed country with a comprehensive health service. The variability between CHEs in terms of the clinical services provided and case mix differences invalidates direct comparison of HA-BSI rates. Surveillance for HA-BSI should continue with the collection of data which would allow meaningful comparison of similar tertiary level services.