1.2 What Are Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs)?

Healthcare–associated infections or HAIs are infections that patients get while receiving treatment for other medical or surgical conditions. Modern medicine involves many invasive devices such as catheters or ventilators that can cause and spread infections.

There are different kinds of HAIs, including central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), catheter–associated urinary tract infections (UTIs), and ventilator–associated pneumonia (VAP).

Since surgical procedures also involve probing and invasive devices, surgical infections are also common and are known as surgical site infections (SSIs).