Central Lines Infections

Central Lines Infections

Central Line-Associated Primary Bloodstream Infections (CLI) occur when a central venous catheter (or “line”) placed into a patient’s vein gets infected.

Patients require a central line when blood, fluid replacement and/or nutrition need to be given to them intravenously. Central lines also allow health care providers to monitor fluid status and make determinations about the heart and blood.

A CLI happens when bacteria grow in the line and spreads to the patient’s bloodstream. The bacteria can come from a variety of places (e.g., skin, wounds, environment, etc.), though it most often comes from the patient's skin.

Jump to a section below:

STEGH CLI Rates as reported to the Ministry

2024

Date
Cases
Rates
July to Sept 2024
0.00
April to June 2024
0.00
January to March 2024
0.00

CLI Rates

All hospitals with Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are required to report into the Critical Care Information System (CCIS) – a centralized data collection system where hospitals report a variety of critical care information – must publicly report the CLI indicator data. These hospitals are considered "eligible" for CLI-BSI reporting.

These Ontario hospitals are posting their quarterly CLI rate and case count for those infections acquired in their facility, using the following formula:

total # of ICU related BSIs after 48 hours of central line placement x 100
total # of central line days for ICU patients 18 years and older

Due to the low number of ICU patients who have a central line inserted (central line days) at STEGH, we recognize that even one new case of central line blood stream infection will result in a high CLI rate.

What are health care-associated infections?

Sometimes when patients are admitted to the hospital, they can get infections. These are called health care-associated infections.

If you have any questions about the information below or about our hospital’s infection prevention and control program, please contact us.

FAQ

Prevention & Control

C. difficile Associated Disease (CDAD) Rate Reporting

C. difficile is one of the many types of bacteria that can be found in feces (bowel movement), and has been a known cause of health care-associated diarrhea for about 30 years.Learn more about C. difficile.

STEGH posts its infection rates online on a monthly basis with new information posted on our site, and on the Ministry’s website, on the last day of every month. Public reporting of our hospital’s C. difficile rates allows us to establish a baseline and track our rates over time. Tracking our rates allows us to review our internal processes, identify areas for improvement, areas of success and implement strategies to reduce the incidence of C. difficile.

STEGH C.difficile Rates as Reported to the Ministry

October 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
September 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
August 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.27
July 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
June 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
May 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
April 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
March 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
February 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
January 2020
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
November 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
October 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
September 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
August 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
July 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.54
June 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
May 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.23
April 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
March 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
February 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
January 2019
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.45
December 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.23
November 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.5
October 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.24
September 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
August 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.55
July 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
June 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.25
May 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
April 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
March 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.46
February 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
January 2018
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.22
December 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.23
November 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.47
October 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
September 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.24
August 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.25
July 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.24
June 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.28
May 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
April 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
March 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.24
February 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
January 2017
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.52
December 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
November 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00

 

 

October 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
September 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
August 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0.00
July 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.50
June 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.57

 

May 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.28

 

 

April 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.26
March 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.25
February 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile <1
C. difficile Rate 0.26
January 2016
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.93

 

 

December 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.24

 

November 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.51
October 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <
C. difficile Rate 0.00

 

September 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.26
August 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.57
July 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.53
June 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.26
May 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.51
April 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.82
March 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.55
February 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <0
C. difficile Rate 0.00

 

January 2015
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.48
December 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.50
November 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.26
October 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.88
September 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.62
August 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.28
July 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.30
June 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0
May 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0
April 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0
March 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.85
Feb 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.29
Jan 2014
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0
Dec 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.29
Nov 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.33
Oct 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.33
Sept 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0
August 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.31
July 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0
June 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile 0
C. difficile Rate 0
May 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.29
April 2013
# of new cases of C. difficile <5
C. difficile Rate 0.29

 

Infection Rate per 1,000 Patient Days

The C. difficile infection rate is calculated as a rate per 1,000 patient days. The "total patient days" represents the sum of the number of days during which services were provided to all inpatients during the given time period.

The rate is calculated as follows:

Number of new hospital acquired cases of C. difficile in our facility x 1000

Total number of patient days (for one month)

What are hospital-acquired cases?

Sometimes when patients are admitted to the hospital, they can get infections. These are called hospital-acquired infections. In the case of C. difficile, this may mean that symptoms began 72 hours after admission to the hospital; or that the infection was present at the time of admission but was related to a previous admission to that hospital within the last four weeks.

All Ontario hospitals now report their C. difficile rates monthly. At any point in time, it is not unusual for STEGH, or any other hospital in the country to report the presence of C. difficile in their facility. At STEGH, we continue to monitor all cases of C. difficile in our Hospital and we have numerous infection control processes [link to infection control] in place to minimize the risk of infection spreading to other patients. We continue to work together to reduce all hospital acquired infections, including C. difficile.

Visit the Ministry of Health Care and Long-Term Care website to view other hospital's rates.

If you have any questions about this information or about our hospital’s infection prevention and control program, please contact us.