Abstract Background Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are the most frequent cause of nosocomial adverse effects in the United States. In 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services developed an action plan to eliminate HAIs which includes monitoring the rates of six nosocomial infections including central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs). The focus on these measures has resulted in a decreased incidence of nosocomial blood stream infections, but the measures are labor-intensive, subject to ceiling effects, and do not reflect the full burden of hospital-acquired blood stream infections. Given these limitations, hospital-onset blood stream infection (HOBSI), defined as the growth of a recognized bacterial or fungal pathogen from a blood culture specimen collected on or after the fourth day of hospital admission, has been proposed as an alternate measure of nosocomial blood-stream infections. In a prior study, HOBSI rate correlated with CLABSI rate making this a possible surrogate marker for CLABSI.CLABSI p=0.343). Conclusion HOBSI surveillance has been proposed as an alternate nosocomial blood-stream surveillance measure that would be easier to automate and would provide data on hospital-acquired blood stream infections beyond CLABSIs. In our study, there was not a significant correlation between HOBSI and CLABSI rates, but rates of both were low. Further research is needed into whether HOBSI surveillance should be adopted as part of our standard HAI surveillance measures. Disclosures Kelly R. Reveles, PharmD, PhD, AstraZeneca: Advisor/Consultant|Ferring Pharmaceuticals: Advisor/Consultant
Soto et al. (Thu,) studied this question.