National Healthcare-Associated Infections Report 2022 - Saudi Arabia.

Background: Surveillance data are very essential for the effective use of available resources, the prioritization of infection control practices, and setting goals for intervention. The aim was to present the current rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and device utilization ratios (DUR) among the Saudi Ministry of health (MOH) hospitals.

Methods: MOH analyzed the surveillance data collected from 106 MOH hospitals enrolled in the health electronic surveillance network (HESN) between January 2022 and December 2022. The surveillance methodology was similar to the methods of the US National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) center for infection control.

Results: More than one million device-days of surveillance were analyzed. The rate of central line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) was 2.57 per 1000 central lines days. The rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) was 1.08 per 1000 urinary catheter days. The rate of ventilator-associated events (VAE) was 4.21 per 1000 ventilator days. The average rate of pediatric/neonatal ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) was 1.53 per 1000 ventilator days. The average DURs were 0.33 for central line, 0.61 for urinary catheter, 0.44 for ventilator in adult patients, and 0.26 in ventilator in pediatric/neonatal patients. In 238632 months of surveillance, the rate of dialysis events (DE) was 0.97 per 100 patient-months. In 86324 surgeries monitored, the rate of surgical site infection (SSI) was 0.87 per 100 surgeries surveyed.

Conclusions: The current report can serve as a national benchmark for MOH hospitals and a regional benchmark for similar hospitals in the region.