Welcome to NHSN

CDC welcomes you to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).  A special appreciation to those of you who are joining us for the first time in order to comply with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program.

NHSN is the HAI surveillance gold standard.  The system (and its predecessors) started years ago helping a few hundred healthcare facilities; today, more than 4,900 healthcare facilities use NHSN as the cornerstone of their HAI elimination strategies.  Specifically, facilities use NHSN to:

Since January 2011, NHSN has been the tool used by facilities electing to participate in the CMS HAI IPPS Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, formerly known as Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU). As part of that program, central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) data from each facility's adult, pediatric, and neonatal intensive care units is reported to NHSN and shared with CMS. 

Starting in 2012, catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) data from each facility’s adult and pediatric intensive care units and surgical site infection (SSI) data from inpatient colon and abdominal hysterectomy procedures will also be reported to NHSN and shared with CMS. Each facility’s data will be included in CMS’ Hospital Compare tool, which publicly reports hospital quality measures in a consistent and unified manner.

This new partnership with CMS is a step toward greater transparency of HAI data, and also toward stronger accountability within the U.S. healthcare system.  It also highlights the importance of strong facility-level support for infection prevention programs and professionals.

The NHSN team offers participating facilities an abundance of online and personal support to ensure successful use of the system. If your facility is new to NHSN and you would like to get started in order to comply with the CMS IPPS rule, please visit NHSN Training and Enrollment Requirements for the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program.

If you’re already using NHSN to report CLABSI data to comply with the CMS IPPS rule, please visit the NHSN training page to complete training modules for NHSN’s CAUTI and SSI surveillance.  Please also contact your state health department HAI coordinator for state-based NHSN resources and assistance.

We look forward to working with you toward eliminating healthcare-associated infections.

Dr. Daniel Pollock
Surveillance Branch Chief
Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Operational Guidance for Acute Care Hospitals

• Operational Guidance for Acute Care Hospitals to Report Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI) Data to CDC’s NHSN for the Purpose of Fulfilling CMS’s Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Requirements [PDF - 154 KB] Dec. 2011
• Operational Guidance for Acute Care Hospitals to Report Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) Data to CDC’s NHSN for the Purpose of Fulfilling CMS’s Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Requirements [PDF - 153 KB] Dec. 2011
• Operational Guidance for Reporting Surgical Site Infection Data to CDC’s NHSN for the Purpose of Fulfilling CMS’s Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program Requirements [PDF - 177 KB] Dec. 2011