US National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN): Patient safety component manual

Summary

NHSN is a secure, web-based surveillance application that is the nation’s most widely used healthcare-associated infection (HAI) tracking system. The application is managed and maintained by the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

While ensuring data security, integrity, and confidentiality, NHSN gives healthcare facilities the ability to see their data in real-time and share that information with clinicians and facility leadership, as well as with other facilities (e.g., a multihospital system) and partners such as health departments or quality improvement organizations. CDC provides the standard national measures for HAIs as well as analytic tools that enable each facility to assess its progress and identify where additional efforts are needed.

In addition, NHSN is the conduit for facilities to comply with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) infection reporting requirements. NHSN provides medical facilities, states, regions, and the nation with data collection and reporting capabilities needed to:

• identify infection prevention problems by facility, state, or specific quality improvement project
• benchmark progress of infection prevention efforts
• comply with state and federal public reporting mandates
• drive national progress toward elimination of HAIs.

NHSN includes the following components: Patient Safety, Long-term Care Facility, Outpatient Dialysis, Healthcare Personnel Safety, Biovigilance, Outpatient Procedure, and Neonatal.