Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) continues to be one of the most deadly and costly hospital-associated infections in the US. Many lives have been saved in the past decade due to improvements that resulted in a 58 percent reduction of CLABSI in intensive care patients from 2001 to 2009. However, these infections continue to occur and more occur in other areas of the hospital outside the ICU.
Strategies to prevent these infections include the IHI Central Line Bundle, implemented by many hospitals in the US and UK and resulting in dozens achieving more than one year of no CLABSI in their ICU patients. Additional strategies have been identified by clinical experts at SHEA and CDC, adding to the growing evidence base as we strive to eliminate all of these deadly infections.