What does the term hospital-acquired infection mean?
Hospital-acquired infection (also known as nosocomial infection) has a strict definition. It refers to an infection that develops in a patient 48 hours or more after admission to a hospital or 48 hours after insertion of an indwelling device, such as a urinary catheter. Infections that occur within the first 48 hours are considered to have been picked up in the community and were incubating prior to admission. These are then referred to as community-acquired infections. The 48 hour cut-off is somewhat arbitrary as infections have variable incubation periods. Nevertheless, some standard definition is useful when considering likely sources of infection and 48 hours has remained the international standard for many years. Please click the tabs below to review Piedmont Hospital’s data pertaining to hospital-acquired infections as compared to our Benchmarking Group and the National National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System (NNIS). All data are from the calendar year 2008. *Piedmont
