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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Health Care-Associated Infections

Goal: Reduce health care-associated infections.

A health care provider washes their hands in a hospital.

Every year in the United States, more than a half-million people get health care-associated infections (HAIs) while they’re being treated at a hospital for other health problems.1 Healthy People 2030 focuses on preventing and treating 2 types of HAIs.

C. diff (Clostridioides difficile) and MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) are 2 of the most common causes of infections that people get in hospitals. Many of these infections are preventable, yet they cause thousands of deaths every year.2

Infection prevention and control interventions at hospitals and improvements in antibiotic use are critical for reducing C. diff and MRSA.

Objective Status

  • 1 Target met or exceeded
  • 1 Improving
  • 0 Little or no detectable change
  • 0 Getting worse
  • 0 Baseline only
  • 1 Developmental
  • 0 Research

Learn more about objective types

Related Objectives

The following is a sample of objectives related to this topic. Some objectives may include population data.

Infectious Disease

Reduce C. diff infections that people get in the hospital — HAI‑01
Target met or exceeded
Reduce MRSA bloodstream infections that people get in the hospital — HAI‑02
Improving
Reduce inappropriate antibiotic use in outpatient settings — HAI‑D01
Developmental

Other topics you may be interested in

References

1.

Magill, S.S. et al. (2018). Changes in Prevalence of Health Care–Associated Infections in U.S. Hospitals. New England Journal of Medicine, 379, 1732-1744. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1801550.

2.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/antimicrobial-resistance/media/pdfs/2019-ar-threats-report-508.pdf?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/threats-report/2019-ar-threats-report-508.pdf [PDF - 20.8 MB]