Prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in Finland 2022

Background Finnish acute care hospitals participated in the European point prevalence survey on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial use (AMU) conducted using the same methods for the third time. The study was coordinated by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) together with the participating hospitals.

Methods All patients admitted to the hospitals on the day of the survey were included. Data on HAIs, AMU, and patient characteristics were collected.

Results The study included 7564 patients of whom 7,4% (n=561) had at least one active HAI on the day of the survey. Prevalence was highest in intensive care (16%), surgery (11%), and in internal medicine (8%) specialties. The most common types of HAI were surgical-site infection (24%), bloodstream infection or clinical sepsis (19%), pneumonia (18%), and urinary tract infection (13%). Of the patients, 36% received at least one systemic antimicrobial; every fourth course was prescribed for prophylactic use.

Conclusions Identifying local areas of improvement can enhance the prevention of healthcare-associated infections.

Saija Toura, Emmi Sarvikivi