CDC/NHSN surveillance definition of health care-associated infection and criteria for specific types of infections in the acute care setting.

Since 1988, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published 2 articles in which nos­ ocomial infection and criteria for specific types of nos­ ocomial infection for surveillance purposes for use in acute care settings have been defined. This document replaces those articles, which are now considered obso­ lete, and uses the generic term ‘‘health care–associated infection’’ or ‘‘HAI’’ instead of ‘‘nosocomial.’’ This doc­ ument reflects the elimination of criterion 1 of clinical sepsis (effective in National Healthcare Safety Network [NHSN] facilities since January 2005) and criteria for lab­ oratory–confirmed bloodstream infection (LCBI). Spe­ cifically for LCBI, criterion 2c and 3c, and 2b and 3b, were removed effective in NHSN facilities since January 2005 and January 2008, respectively. The definition of ‘‘implant,’’ which is part of the surgical site infection (SSI) criteria, has been slightly modified. No other infec­ tion criteria have been added, removed, or changed. There are also notes throughout this document that reflect changes in the use of surveillance criteria since the implementation of NHSN. For example, the