Point Prevalence Survey of Hospital-Acquired Infections & Antimicrobial Use in European Acute Care Hospitals 2012

In May 2012, 50 acute Irish hospitals (42 public and eight private) participated in the voluntary European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) point prevalence survey (PPS) of hospital acquired infections (HAI) and antimicrobial use. The survey was coordinated in Ireland by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) and was carried out across all of the European Union Member States

The survey was done for the following reasons:
1. To count the number of patients with a hospital-acquired infection (HAI) and describe the types of HAI most commonly encountered in Irish hospitals.

2. To count the number of patients who were prescribed antimicrobials and describe the types of antimicrobials being used in Irish hospitals.

3. To provide the Irish Government, Department of Health, Health Service Executive, the managers, doctors and nurses in all of the hospitals that took part, with information about HAI and antimicrobial prescribing practices in Irish hospitals in 2012. This information is important to plan future ways to reduce the numbers of patients who get HAI and to improve antimicrobial prescribing practices.

4. To provide members of the public with more information about HAI in Ireland and which types of infections are most commonly seen in Irish hospitals.

5. To contribute information from Ireland on HAI and antimicrobial prescribing to the overall European survey report, which is expected to be published in 2013.

National report of the 2012 PPS