Healthcare Associated Infections

Healthcare Associated Infections terms

1. 508 Compliance Rules that state that federal agencies must make their messages to the public available to people with disabilities.
2. Acute Care Providing emergency services and general medical and surgical treatment.
3. Acute Care Facility One step below a hospital, an acute care facility gives advanced medical and nursing services to bring you back to health.
4. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (AHRQ) A division of Department of Health and Human Services.
5. Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) (ASC) Facilities that perform specific procedures in an outpatient (non-hospital) setting
6. Ambulatory Surgical Center, Ambulatory Surgical Facility Healthcare facilities that offer surgical services only to patients who go home the same day of the procedure.
7. Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. (APIC) (APIC) A voluntary membership organization representing members in this profession.
8. Bacterium More than one bacteria.
9. Care Provider A person who provides health services, such as, doctor, nurse, dentist, health educator.
10. Catheter (KA-theh-ter) A flexible tube used to deliver fluids into or withdraw fluids from the body.
11. Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) (CAUTI) Infection involving any part of the urinary system, including urethra, bladder, ureters, and kidney that is caused by the insertion of a urinary catheter.
12. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (CDC) One of the foremost national agencies in the world that serves to support and advance public health.
13. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) (CMS) A federal agency that runs the national health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid
14. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (CDC) A division of Department of Health and Human Services.
15. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) (CMS) A division of Department of Health and Human Services.
16. Central Line A central line is a flexible tube that is inserted near a patient's heart or into one of the large blood vessels near the heart.
17. Central line catheter A long flexible tube that is inserted into a large blood vessel near the heart.
18. Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI) (CLABSI) Central line-associated bloodstream infections can result if an intravenous catheter is inserted incorrectly or not cared for properly.
19. Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. An independent testing board that certifies infection prevention professionals by a formal written examination.
20. Clostridium Difficile (klah-STRIH-dee-um dih-FIS-ih-lee) A type of bacterium found in human and animal waste.
21. Clostridium Difficile Infection A bacterium that is one of the most common causes of infection of the colon in the US. Patients taking antibiotics are at risk of becoming infected with C.
22. Clostridium difficile-Associated Disease (CDI) (CDI) An intestinal illness caused by toxins produced by the bacteria called Clostridium difficile.
23. Collaboration People or groups working together to achieve a common goal.
24. Community Acquired Infection An infection that occurs without exposure in recent weeks or months to the risk from care in a hospital, clinic, doctor’s office, or home-care treatment…
25. Confidence Intervals The confidence interval for a hospital's standardized infection ratio (SIR) is the range of possible SIRs within which there is a 95 percent confidence…
26. Consumer / healthcare consumer The consumer is a person who uses healthcare services such as doctor visits, hospital services, laboratory services.
27. Contact Isolation Designed to prevent transmission of highly transmissible or epidemiologically important infections that do not warrant strict isolation.
28. Contagious Easily spread from one person to another or from one part of the body to another; able to be spread from person to person or living object to nonliving…
29. Contaminated To make dirty or impure.
30. Contamination To make impure, infected, corrupt, etc, by contact with or addition of something; to pollute something.
31. Coronary Artery Bypass Graft A surgical replacement for clogged blood vessels located near the heart.
32. Critical Access Hospital (CAH) (CAH) A small, generally geographically remote facility that provides outpatient and inpatient hospital services to people in rural areas.
33. Cross-infection Infection of a patient with bacteria from another person.
34. Diabetes Any of several diseases in which the kidneys make a large amount of urine. Diabetes usually refers to diabetes mellitus in which there is also a high…
35. Dialysis facility An out-patient facility where dialysis is given to people with end stage kidney disease.
36. Diarrhea Frequent and watery bowel movements.
37. Donning To put on gloves, gown and mask.
38. Epidemiology (EH-pih-dee-mee-AH-loh-jee) The study of the patterns, causes, and control of disease in groups of people.
39. Exposed Not protected so body may allow germs to entry and cause disease, or body does not have the defense to protect itself from certain germs.
40. Extended-spectrum ß-lactamase (ESBL) (ESBL) Beta-lactamases are enzymes that destroy certain antibiotics; ESBLs are bacteria that have acquired these enzymes and become resistant to those drugs.
41. Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) (ESBL) Beta-lactamases are enzymes that destroy certain antibiotics. ESBLs are bacteria that have acquired these enzymes and have become resistant to certain…
42. Georgia Healthcare-Acquired Infections Advisory Committee (GHAIAC) (GHAIAC) The Georgia advisory committee charged with making recommendations to the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) on the prevention of healthcare…
43. HAI Prevention Collaborative A group of facilities that are engaged in an effort to improve an outcome, in this case to reduce HAIs.
44. Health Literacy How well a person understands and acts on healthcare decisions.
45. Health Resources Services Agency (HRSA) (HRSA) A division of Department of Health and Human Services.
46. Healthcare Associated Infection An infection that develops during or soon after care in a hospital, clinic, or doctor’s office, or after a home-visit by a health professional.
47. Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) (HICPAC) An expert panel in a specific field who advise the CDC on matters of healthcare associated infection, surveillance, control and prevention.
48. Healthcare provider A person who provides health services, such as, doctor, nurse, dentist, or health educator.
49. Healthcare-associated Infection (HAI) (HAI) Healthcare-associated Infections are infections that patients acquire during the course of receiving treatment for other conditions within a healthcare…
50. Heart Attack Damage to the heart muscle caused when the blood vessels supplying the muscle are blocked, such as when the blood vessels are clogged with fats (a…
51. Home care Care provided in a person’s home. Home care can be health services such as bathing, assisting someone to walk or more skilled services such as drawing…
52. Hygiene (HY-jeen) The science of health, and the practice of cleanliness that promotes good health and well-being.
53. Hypertension (HY-per-TEN-shun) A blood pressure of 140/90 or higher. Hypertension usually has no symptoms.
54. Hypertension Admissions Hypertension is high blood pressure. Having high blood pressure raises your risk for heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death…
55. Iatrogenic Pneumothorax (healthcare-associated collapsed lung). This measure is used to assess the number of cases of iatrogenic pneumothorax (healthcare- associated collapsed…
56. Incidence Rate The ratio of the number of new cancers of a specific site/type occurring in a specified population during a year to the number of individuals who were at…
57. Infection Invasion and multiplication of germs in the body. Infections can occur in any part of the body and can spread throughout the body.
58. Infection control The ways healthcare providers use to prevent infections with the uses of gown, gloves, masks, special cleaning products and not allowing certain people…
59. Infection Control Practitioner, Infection Control Professional, Infection Preventionist A healthcare worker who specializes in infection surveillance, control and prevention.
60. Infection Rate An infection rate is the number of infections reported in a specified period of time divided by the number of exposures to an infection during the same…
61. Influenza See flu.
62. Influenza Vaccination Pneumonia patients age 50 years and older, hospitalized during October, November, December, January, February or March who were screened for influenza…
63. Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (ICU) A hospital unit staffed and equipped to provide intensive care.
64. International Classification of Diseases - 9th revision - Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) (ICD-9-CM) ICD-9-CM stands for the "International Classification of Diseases - 9th revision - Clinical Modification.
65. Invasive (in-va'siv) having the ability to enter and spread throughout the tissues of the body; the ability to infiltrate and actively destroy surrounding tissue.
66. Isolation (I-soh-LAY-shun) State of being separated from others. Isolation is sometimes used to prevent disease from spreading.
67. IV catheter A short flexible tube that is inserted into a vein for supplying medications or nutrients directly into the bloodstream.
68. Knee Replacements Total or Partial Knee replacement surgery (arthroplasty) is an elective procedure for people with severe knee damage and pain related to osteoarthritis, rheumatoid…
69. Long Term Acute Care Facility or Hospital (LTAC) (LTAC) A healthcare facility authorized by the Department of Social and Health Services to specialize in twenty-four hour inpatient medical and rehabilitative…
70. Long-term care facility (LTCF) (LTCF) An institution, such as nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities that provide healthcare to people who are unable to manage independently in the…
71. Maximal Being at the top limit.
72. Medical Procedure An examination, surgery, diagnostic test, a laboratory test that is done by a healthcare provider.
73. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (MRSA) MRSA causes a staph infection (pronounced "staff infection") that is resistant to several common antibiotics. There are two types of infection.
74. monitor (MAH-nih-ter) In medicine, to regularly watch and check a person or condition to see if there is any change.
75. Morbidity A disease or the incidence of disease within a population. Morbidity also refers to adverse effects caused by a treatment.
76. Mortality The state of being mortal (destined to die). Mortality also refers to the death rate, or the number of deaths in a certain group of people in a certain…
77. Multidrug-resistant Organism (MDRO) (MDRO) Bacteria that have become unusually resistant to many of the drugs that used to be effective against them.
78. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) (NHSN) A network that is supported by CDC.
79. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) (NICU) An intensive care unit designed with special equipment to care for premature or seriously ill newborns.
80. Nosocomial Originating or taking place in a hospital
81. Office of Healthcare Quality (OHQ) (OHQ) An office of the Department of Health and Human Services. This office works to improve healthcare.
82. Pathogens Bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi that can cause disease; a specific causative agent of a disease such as bacterium or a virus.
83. Patient safety Ways to keep patients safe from infection or the spread of disease.
84. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) (PPE) Clothing or devices worn to help isolate or shield a person from direct exposure to a hazardous material or situation.
85. Pneumonia (noo-MOH-nyuh) A severe inflammation of the lungs in which the alveoli (tiny air sacs) are filled with fluid.
86. Prevalence Rate The proportion of a population that has a particular condition at any given time, whether as a new or chronic case.
87. Preventable To stop from happening.
88. protocol An action plan for a clinical trial. The plan states what the study will do, how, and why.
89. Sensitivity When referring to a medical test, sensitivity refers to the percentage of people who test positive for a specific disease among a group of people who have…
90. Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) (SHEA) A voluntary membership organization representing members of this profession who have a medical degree or a graduate degree related to epidemiology.
91. specificity When referring to a medical test, specificity refers to the percentage of people who test negative for a specific disease among a group of people who do…
92. Spectrum of Healthcare Health services provided in a range of settings, including acute care hospitals, outpatient surgery centers, long-term acute care hospitals, long-term…
93. Spore A term used to describe a particle in plants, bacteria and fungi.
94. SSI Rate Surgical site infection rates per 100 operative procedures are found by dividing the number of SSIs by the number of total number of specific operative…
95. Stakeholder A person or group of people who are involved in a project and feel ownership.
96. Standard Precautions/Universal Precautions Precautions used in a medical facility that involve “protection as needed” to implement infection control and to protect the medical team and the…
97. Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) (SIR) Number of cases of infections developed in a hospital divided by the number of infections both in and out of a hospital.
98. Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) Statistical Method (SIR) This indirect standardization method accounts for differences in the risk of surgical site infections among a group of procedures.
99. Strategy A plan of action.
100. Strict Isolation Designed to prevent transmission of highly contagious or virulent infections that may be spread by air or contact.