This is the second case study published in a series in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) surveillance definition update of 2015. These cases reflect some of the complex patient scenarios IPs have encountered in their daily surveillance of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) using NHSN definitions. Objectives have been previously published. 1

With each case, a link to an online survey is provided, where you may answer the questions posed and receive immediate feedback in the form of answers and explanations. All individual participant answers will remain confidential, although it is the authors’ intention to share a summary of the findings at a later date.

Cases, answers, and explanations have been reviewed and approved by NHSN staff.

We encourage you to take advantage of this offering, and we look forward to your active participation. We strongly recommend that you review/reference the NHSN Patient Safety Component Manual for information you may need to answer the case study questions. The website links are:

http://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/PDFs/pscManual/2PSC_IdentifyingHAIs_NHSNcurrent.pdf

The findings and conclusions in this case study are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For each question, please select the most correct answer. Unless otherwise speficied, each question has only one correct answer.

NOTE: NHSN has developed a surveillance worksheet to promote consistent surveillance data collection. That worksheet, as well as an example of a completed worksheet with explanation, is available under “Supporting Materials” at this site: http://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/acute-care-hospital/clabsi/index.html .

Please note that there are 2 tabs at the bottom of each of these excel documents, and review information in both tabs. We recommend that you access and print these forms to use as you work through this exercise and in your routine surveillance activities.

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