AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Shawn Kepner, MS, Patient Safety Authority
ORCID iD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6770-5529
Shawn Kepner (shawkepner@pa.gov) is a data scientist at the Patient Safety Authority.
Amanda
Bennett, MPH, MLS(ASCP)CM, Patient Safety Authority
Amanda Bennett is an infection prevention advisor at the Patient Safety Authority.
Rebecca Jones, MBA, RN, Patient Safety Authority
ORCID iD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6639-9312
Rebecca Jones is director of Data Science & Research at the Patient Safety Authority (PSA) and founder and director of the PSA’s Center of Excellence for Improving Diagnosis.
Abstract
Background
The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS) is the largest database of patient safety event reports in the United States. In addition to over 4.7 million acute care reports, the PA-PSRS database contains more than 420,000 long-term care (LTC) healthcare-associated infection (HAI) reports.
Methods
LTC HAI data from PA-PSRS were extracted on March 1, 2024. Infection counts were calculated based on report submission date and rates were calculated based on infection confirmation date. Reports submitted by LTC facilities and specific care areas were included for infection rates each month if resident and device days were also entered in PA-PSRS for the facility and care area.
Results
A total of 23,970 infection reports were submitted by Pennsylvania’s LTC facilities in 2023, representing an 18.6% increase from 2022. The overall infection rate increased by 11.4%, from 0.88 in 2022 to 0.98 in 2023, and all six regions of the state had an increase in infection rate. The Northeast region had the highest rate, with 1.28 reports per 1,000 resident days, and the Southeast region had the lowest rate, at 0.72. The overall rate increase was driven by rates of urinary tract infection (UTI) and skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI), which increased by 20.1% and 17.4%, respectively. Within the UTI infection type, symptomatic urinary tract infection (SUTI) rates increased by 21.1% and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) rates increased by 11.8%.
Conclusion
There was an increase in the total number and rate of infections reported to PA-PSRS in 2023.
