A Multicenter Longitudinal Study of Hospital-Onset Bacteremia: Time for a New Quality Outcome Measure?

Central-line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rate is an important quality measure, but it suffers from subjectivity and interrater variability, and decreasing national CLABSI rates may compromise its power to discriminate between hospitals. This study evaluates hospital-onset bacteremia (HOB, ie, any positive blood culture obtained 48 hours post admission) as a healthcare-associated infection-related outcome measure by assessing the association between HOB and CLABSI rates and comparing the power of each to discriminate quality among intensive care units (ICUs).

Rock C, Thom KA, Harris AD, et al. A Multicenter Longitudinal Study of Hospital-Onset Bacteremia: Time for a New Quality Outcome Measure? Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. 2016;37:143-148. doi:10.1017/ice.2015.261