This annual report provides an overview of the Tasmanian acute public hospitals healthcare associated infection surveillance. This complements the quarterly surveillance data reports that the Tasmanian Infection Prevention and Control Unit (TIPCU) has been publishing since March 2009. The TIPCU website (www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/tipcu) contains details of the surveillance program and the methodologies used in data collection, validation and analysis. These details are not contained in this report but are freely available online should further information be required.
Any form of comparison between hospitals should be done with extreme caution and direct comparisons are not recommended. Information about how Tasmanian rates compare with those of other Australian states (where available), are provided in the Key Points sections of this report. The Appendices in this report contain more detailed information.
Compared to the quarterly reports published by the TIPCU, this report contains some additional detail, such as infection rates by financial year and antimicrobial use. From this report, the following findings can be made:
• The rate of healthcare associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia remains low.
• The rate and number of both hospital identified Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and healthcare associated – healthcare facility onset Clostridium difficile infection (HCA – HCF CDI) are similar to those in the previous quarter.
• The occurrence of vancomycin resistant enterococcus remains low.