Smart Solutions For HCAI

• What are HCAIs?

• Why are they such a problem?

• Which are the most dangerous bugs?

• What is the NHS doing about HCAIs?

 

What are HCAIs?

Heathcare Associated Infections (HCAIs) are infections acquired in hospitals or surgeries, care homes or other locations as a result of healthcare treatment. They are caused by microorganisms, often by bacteria that normally live harmlessly in or on our body.

The prevalence of HCAIs in England has remained relatively constant over the last 25 years, although the organisms responsible for the infections have changed, with new strains developing and others being controlled.

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Why are they such a problem?

Although the chances of acquiring an HCAI are low, when a patient does it is extremely distressing for them, their family and the NHS staff treating them.

Infection is also costly. On average, it adds three to ten days on to a patient’s stay in hospital and for Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) that stay will be even longer. Financially it can cost between £4,000 and £10,000 to treat a patient with an infection1.

1. Department of Health (2008). Clean, safe care – Reducing infections and saving lives. (Accessed on 18 June 2008; www.clean-safe-care.nhs.uk).

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Which are the most dangerous bugs?

In the UK we face particular challenges from methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C. difficile).

About 30 per cent of the population have some type of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria living naturally on their skin or in their nose, where it usually does them no harm. MRSA is a strain of the S. aureus bacterium which is resistant to commonly used antibiotics and is present in around three per cent of the population. It is no more infectious than other strains of S. aureus but can be more difficult to treat and therefore infections may become more severe.

MRSA is usually spread through direct skin-to-skin contact, or by touching materials and surfaces contaminated from someone infected with it.

C. difficile is a bacterium that lives in the gut of about three per cent of healthy adults in England. It is kept at bay by normal bacteria, but if those bacteria are killed by antibiotics, C. difficile can proliferate. In most cases, the infection develops after cross-infection from another patient.

Patients with C difficile excrete large numbers of spores in their faeces which contaminate the environment. Over 80 per cent of cases are in people aged over 65. Unlike MRSA, C. difficile spores are not killed by alcohol.

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What is the NHS doing about HCAIs?

Reducing Heathcare Associated Infections (HCAIs) is one of the NHS’s top priorities and it has set some challenging targets, for example to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infections by 2011.

The NHS has launched a range of initiatives including the HCAI Technology Innovation Programme, which aims to speed up the adoption of technologies to combat infections. As part of the programme, in 2004 it set up the Rapid Review Panel (RRP) to provide independent advice on technologies that may be of value to the NHS in reducing infection.

The panel makes recommendations in one of seven categories. RRP 1 means that evaluations have shown benefits and, where practical, these technologies are being placed in the supply chain catalogue as soon as possible to make them readily available to the NHS. At the other end of the scale, RRP 7 means the product is not sufficiently related to infection control procedures to merit consideration by the panel.

Smart Solutions is another part of the HCAI Technology Innovation Programme and is the first step on the road to achieving an RRP 1 status. It is an opportunity for companies in all industry sectors to have their products evaluated and to build evidence of their value to the NHS.

 

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