Healthcare-Associated Infections Reporting

Background Requirements

People can get infections from hospitals, surgery centers or other places that offer health care. This is a big public health problem. A recent survey showed that 722,000 infections (HAIs) occurred in 2011 in the United States. This means that about 4% of hospital patients ended up with at least one infection.

All hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities know that stopping HAIs is vital. These HAIs are still a major cause of disease, loss of life and high medical costs. So, laws were put in place to report these infections to the public. There are ways to help manage and prevent them.

DSHS created a system to track HAIs. General hospitals and surgery centers are required to report the following HAIs:

Types of HAIs

CLABSI | CAUTI | SSI

Central-Line Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSIs): These are infections in the blood that happen when a central line (tube that carries medicine and other treatments into a patient’s body) is used in a patient.  

Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs): These are infections in a patient’s urinary tract (often referred to as a urinary tract infection or UTI) after a tube is placed in a patient that allows urine to pass out of the patient.  

Surgical Site Infections (SSIs): These infections happen in a patient’s body after the patient has surgery.

Texas Healthcare Associated Infection Data
(Note: Each healthcare facility reports their own cases and are not confirmed by DSHS.)