South Carolina Hospitals Mandated to Report Healthcare-associated Infections

In 2006, state lawmakers passed the Hospital Infections Disclosure Act (HIDA). This law requires hospitals licensed by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) to report certain healthcare-associated infection (HAI) events to DHEC and the public. 

Hospitals are required to report certain types of infections that patients developed while being treated in the hospital.

HIDA Goals:

• Promote better infection prevention practices in South Carolina.
• Provide South Carolina citizens and public health officials with a way to measure the state's progress in reducing, and perhaps one day eliminating HAIs.

Required Reporting

Hospital HAI events must be reported using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).  Reporting via NHSN supports standardization of event definitions and analysis while providing the means for hospitals to benchmark their performance internally and externally.

Under HIDA, South Carolina acute care hospitals (ACHs) which includes critical access hospitals, long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) are required to report:

• Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI) data for the following inpatient locations:
  • ACH Adult and Pediatric Critical Care and Ward Locations
  • ACH Adult and Pediatric Specialty Care Area Locations (i.e., hematology/oncology, bone marrow transplant, leukemia/lymphoma units)
  • ACH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Level II/III, III, and IV Locations
  • LTAC Adult and Pediatric Critical Care and Ward Locations
  • IRF Adult and Pediatric Ward Locations
     
• Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) data for the following inpatient locations:
  • ACH Adult and Pediatric Critical Care and Ward Locations
  • ACH Adult and Pediatric Specialty Care Area Locations (i.e., hematology/oncology, bone marrow transplant, leukemia/lymphoma units)
  • LTAC Adult and Pediatric Critical Care and Ward Locations
  • IRF Adult and Pediatric Ward Locations
     
• Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) and related data for the following surgical procedure categories in acute care hospitals:
  • Colon surgeries (COLO)
  • Hip arthroplasties (HPRO)
  • Knee arthroplasties (KPRO)
  • Abdominal hysterectomies (HYST)
  • Coronary artery bypass grafts, chest incision only (CBGC)
  • Coronary artery bypass grafts, chest, and donor incisions (CBGB)
     
• Laboratory-identified (LabID) Events facility-wide in ACHs, LTACs, and IRFs:
  • Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (BSI)
  • Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI)
     
• Ventilator Associated Events (VAE) for the following acute inpatient location categories where ventilator data can be collected:
  • ACH Adult Critical Care, Special Care Area (SCA), Step-down Unit, and Ward Locations
  • LTAC Adult Critical Care and Ward Locations
  • IRF Adult Critical Care and Ward Locations
     
• Pediatric Ventilator Associated Events (PedVAE) for the following acute inpatient location categories where ventilator data can be collected:
  • ACH Pediatric Critical Care, Neonatal Critical Care, Special Care Area (SCA), Step-down Unit, and Ward Locations
  • LTAC Pediatric Critical Care and Ward Locations
  • IRF Pediatric Critical Care and Ward Locations
     
• Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Rates Among Healthcare Personnel
  • Facility-wide for ACHs, LTACs, and IRFs

HIDA Public Reports

Annually, DHEC collects, analyzes, validates, and publishes HAI data* reported by the state’s hospitals in accordance with the HIDA.  South Carolina's HIDA reports give you a way to review and compare hospital infection rates for selected events and surgeries. You can search for each individual hospital's rates or you can view comparison reports for events and surgical procedures by hospital patient care location.

*CAUTI, VAE, and PedVAE are not included in the HIDA reports as recommended by the HIDA Committee due to frequent changes in case definitions, however data are reported to DHEC for transparency and assistance with efforts to improve patient safety.

Related Topics

U.S. Hospital Compare: This U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services web site, Medicare.gov allows consumers to compare healthcare facilities in their selected geographical area.  Comparisons are provided on a variety of quality measures, including many of the HAI events reported as per HIDA.

HAI Progress Report: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides a yearly summary of select healthcare-associated infections by setting (acute care hospitals, critical access hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities) with national and state level data.  Whereas the report may include some of the same events within the HIDA report, data may vary slightly due to the addition or exclusion of some locations or variances in analysis.   

Revised 10/14/2021