Bacteriaemia

HAIBA case definition for healthcare-associated bacteraemia.

Definition of healthcare-associated bacteraemia

A bacteraemia is defined as at least one blood culture that has tested positive for at least one microorganism classified as pathogenic. See the classification of pathogens below. To qualify as a healthcare-associated bacteraemia, the sampling date needs to fall within a period corresponding to the length of contact with the hospital service, which starts 48 hours after contact and ends 48 hours after contact.

Which department/hospital is the infection attributed to?

Number and incidence are estimated for the departments responsible for the treatment (contact responsibility) and for places of stay (addresses of stay). An infection is attributed to the department responsible for contact 48 hours before the sampling date along with the section (address of stay) where the patient was in the 48 hours leading up to the blood culture being taken. HAIBA shows the infection at the time the blood sample was taken.

When does an infection count as a new infection?

A new case of bacteraemia is counted when there is a new positive blood culture more than 30 days after the first positive blood culture.

How is incidence calculated?

To calculate incidence, the denominator must be defined. For bacteraemia, the denominator is the length of the hospital contact in hours, calculated as the number of days at risk. Hours after a bacteraemia has occurred or after a patient died are not counted in the denominator. Incidence is shown as the number of bacteraemia cases per 10,000 risk days.

Classification of pathogenic and contamination bacteria for healthcare-associated bacteraemia

Material codes for blood cultures

Investigation codes