Infection surveillance in US acute care hospitals took root in 1970
when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the
National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System.1 In 2005 the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention integrated the National
Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System, the Dialysis
Surveillance Network, and the National Surveillance of Healthcare
Workers to create the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).2
NHSN provides health care facilities with data that aid in the prevention
of health care-associated infections by identifying changes
in infection rates and sites, risk factors, outcomes, and pathogens.
In recent years, NHSN surveillance efforts have been extended outside
the acute care setting to include outpatient dialysis and ambulatory
surgical centers, long-term acute care hospitals, psychiatric and
rehabilitation hospitals, and nursing homes.3 Despite this expansion,
acute care hospitals and dialysis facilities represent the majority
of facilities in the reporting data. Moreover, little attention has been
given to the use of infection surveillance systems in primary care.