Report: Neonatal ICUs Cut CLABSI Rate by More Than Half in 11 Months

Tags: CLABSI rates | infection control | patient safety

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announced that hospital neonatal intensive care units that participated in an AHRQ patient safety program cut their rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections in newborns by more than half in less than a year.

One hundred NICUs in nine states participated in an 11-month neonatal CLABSI reduction project led by the Health Research & Educational Trust of the American Hospital Association and the Perinatal Quality Collaborative of North Carolina. In the program, which began in August 2011, NICUs used AHRQ's Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program to implement catheter insertion and maintenance guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


The NICUs decreased their CLABSI rate from 2.043 per 1,000 central line days to 0.855 per 1,000 central line days — a reduction of 58 percent. This reduction represents the avoidance of an estimated 131 infections, up to 41 deaths and more than $2 million in healthcare costs, according to the report.

The NCLABSI reduction project is part of a broader project funded by AHRQ called On the CUSP: Stop BSI, which uses CUSP to prevent CLABSIs in intensive care and other units.

More Articles on the On the CUSP Project:

5 Lessons Learned on Implementing a National Quality Improvement Project
National CLABSI Project Reduced ICU Infection Rate 41%
Patient Safety Tool: CLABSI Toolkit