One in thirty-eight hospital patients has an infection they caught there

**On any given day, 1 in 38 hospital patients has at least one
healthcare-associated infection.**

That is the number the whole field exists to move, and progress on it is
tracked through two complementary surveillance systems: the **National
Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)** and the **Emerging Infections Program
Healthcare-Associated Infections – Community Interface (EIP HAIC)**.

What changed between 2023 and 2024

Nationally, among acute care hospitals:

Six down and one up. The outlier is worth noticing precisely because the rest
of the table is good news: whatever is working across catheters, central
lines and colon surgery is not working for abdominal hysterectomy, and a
national picture that only reported the average would hide that.

These are standardised infection ratios, so the comparison already
accounts for differences in the patients and procedures involved rather than
comparing raw counts.

Why the reports exist

**Significant progress has been made in preventing some types of
healthcare-associated infection, and there is much more to do.** The CDC
publishes the data to track that progress **and to target the areas that need
assistance** — which is what the hysterectomy row is for.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.