Protocol for the surveillance of healthcare-associated infections and prevention indicators in European intensive care units

ID 23657 | 19.03.2025 / HAI-Net ICU protocol, V 2.3 2024 - Attached

STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS
Protocol for the surveillance of healthcare-associated infections and prevention indicators in European intensive care units HAI-Net ICU protocol, version 2.3

The main objective of this protocol is to ensure standardisation of definitions, data collection and reporting procedures for hospitals participating in the national/regional surveillance of healthcare-associated infection (HAIs) in intensive care units (ICUs) across Europe, to contribute to the EU surveillance of HAIs and to improve the quality of care in ICUs in a multicentre setting.

The protocol describes methods for the participating ICUs and the national coordinating centres for the surveillance of HAIs. The Council Recommendation of 9 June 2009 on patient safety (2009/C 151/01) including the prevention and control of HAIs, recommends ‘performing the surveillance of the incidence of targeted infection types’, ‘using surveillance methods and indicators as recommended by ECDC and case definitions as agreed upon at the Community level in accordance with the provisions of Decision n. 2119/98/EC.

In 2000–2002, harmonised methods for the surveillance of two targeted infection types, surgical site infections (SSI) and HAIs in ICUs, were developed by the network HELICS (Hospitals in Europe Link for Infection Control through Surveillance), funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Consumers. These methods were progressively implemented in Member States by HELICS and later as part of the Improving Patient Safety in Europe (IPSE) project. Surveillance of HAIs in ICUs was previously chosen as a component for European surveillance based on the existence of such networks in several EU Member States, on the fact that patients admitted to intensive care are at 5 to 10 times higher risk of acquiring a HAI due to both intrinsic (e.g. immunosuppression) and extrinsic (e.g. mechanical ventilation) risk factors, and because the ICU is often the epicentre of emerging problems of HAIs and antimicrobial resistance in the hospital. In July 2008, the coordination of the European surveillance of HAIs was transferred to ECDC in accordance with ECDC’s mandate.

ECDC continued HAI surveillance as was done by HELICS in 2008 and 2009. Minor changes to the HELICS-ICU protocol were agreed with Member State experts in 2010 and led to the release of the first ECDC HAI-Net ICU protocol (Version 1.01) in December 2010 (later published as version 1.02). In 2013, the European Commission asked ECDC to collect additional data on structure and process indicators for HAIs as well as data on mortality from HAIs, based on the ECDC PPS results and in accordance with the Council recommendation 2009/C 151/01 of 9 June 2009 on patient safety, including the prevention and control of HAIs.

From October 2013 to February 2015, structure and process indicators for the prevention of HAIs and antimicrobial resistance in ICUs were developed by ECDC and HAI-Net ICU experts and agreed upon during the HAI-Net ICU network meeting in February 2015 (see Annex 7).

The current version 2.3 of the HAI-Net ICU protocol describes the methods for the surveillance of HAIs and modified prevention indicators in intensive care units as agreed in February 2024. Changes compared to protocol version 2.2 are described in Section 1. All ICUs can participate to the surveillance. To do so, please contact the national HAI surveillance coordinating centre in your country or ECDC HAI-Net at Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo. . A free software with the HAI-Net ICU (HelicsWin.Net) is available on the ECDC website.
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	Descrizione	Lingua	Dimensione	Downloads
	Protocol for the surveillance of HAIs and prevention indicators in European ICUs ECDC 2024	EN	2438 kB	93