How much does it matter if you have an medical emergency or other urgent medical condition necessitating a hospital visit?
How accurate and comprehensive are these prevalence studies?
In a worst case scenario, a patient leaves a hospital in worse health than the patient entered it.
It seems recommendable to leave a hospital as early as is possible and if medically reasonable!
Notice that these statistics appear to be collected very infrequently and several years apart in the US.
Notice the abstract of the study claims "infections were not associated with [hospital] devices or procedures", but does not mention what caused the infections.
"“Prevalence surveys in U.S. hospitals showed that on any given day,
1 of 25 patients had a health care–associated infection in 2011, as compared with
1 of 31 patients in 2015. We repeated the survey in 2023 to assess changes in the prevalence of such infections…
1 of 25 patients had a health care–associated infection in 2011, as compared with
1 of 31 patients in 2015. We repeated the survey in 2023 to assess changes in the prevalence of such infections…
The prevalence of health care–associated infections was lower in 2023 than in 2015, with
1 of 38 patients on any given day having such an infection; however, the burden of health care–associated infections in U.S. hospitals continued to be high.”"
From the abstract:
"Background
Prevalence surveys in U.S. hospitals showed that on any given day, 1 of 25 patients had a health care–associated infection in 2011,
as compared with 1 of 31 patients in 2015. We repeated the survey in 2023 to assess changes in the prevalence of such infections.
Methods
Using established methods, 10 Emerging Infections Program (EIP) sites recruited up to 25 hospitals each. Hospitals selected a survey day between May 1 and September 30, 2023. EIP staff reviewed medical records of randomly selected patients to identify health care–associated infections using National Healthcare Safety Network definitions. We described patient and hospital characteristics, compared the prevalence of health care–associated infections in 2023 and 2015, and estimated the national burden of health care–associated infections in 2023.
Results
In 2023, of 13,653 patients in 218 hospitals, 355 (2.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.3 to 2.9) had at least one health care–associated infection, as compared with 394 of 12,299 patients (3.2%; 95% CI, 2.9 to 3.5) in 199 hospitals in 2015. Approximately 60% of the health care–associated infections were not associated with devices or procedures. Among 151 hospitals in both surveys, patients were less likely to have a health care–associated infection in 2023 than in 2015, after adjustment for other factors (risk ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.63 to 0.85). We estimated that there were 518,000 health care–associated infections (95% CI, 494,500 to 542,000) in U.S. hospitals in 2023.
Conclusions
The prevalence of health care–associated infections was lower in 2023 than in 2015, with 1 of 38 patients on any given day having such an infection; however, the burden of health care–associated infections in U.S. hospitals continued to be high. A majority of the health care–associated infections that were identified were not associated with a device or procedure. ..."
Health Care–Associated Infections in U.S. Hospitals, 2023 versus 2015 (no public access)
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