National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)

• CDC's NHSN Homepage 
• About NHSN
• NHSN Reports
• Group Users
• Data Validation 

• Resources for New Users
• How to Enroll a Facility
• How to Change Facility Administrator 

• NHSN Training Homepage
• NHSN Training Videos
• Self-Paced Trainings
• HAI Checklists
• Educational Roadmaps
• Analysis Training
• Continuing Education 
• Request CDC Led Training

• Patient Safety Component (PSC)
• Long Term Care Facility (LTCF) Component 
• Dialysis Component 
• Biovigilance(BV) Component 
• Healthcare Personnel Safety (HPS) Component
• Neonatal Component 
• Outpatient Safety Component (OPC)

• Reporting Requirements to CMS
• CMS Reporting Requirements and Deadlines
• CMS Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program (IQR)
• CMS Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program (OQR)
• CMS Long Term Care Quality Reporting Program (LTCHQR)
• CMS Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Quality Reporting Program (IRFQR)
• CMS End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Quality Improvement Program (QIP)
• CMS Ambulatory Surgery Centers Quality Reporting Program
• CMS Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting Program (IPFQR)

The antimicrobial use and resistance (AUR) module is designed to track, analyze, and compare antimicrobial use and resistance data to reduce antimicrobial resistant infections. CMS has finalized plans to revise the NHSN Antibiotic Use and Resistance (AUR) reporting measure beginning in calendar year (CY) 2025. The AUR measure will be split into two separate measures: Antimicrobial Use (AU) surveillance and Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) Surveillance. All facilities participating in the Medicare Interoperability Program must be in active engagement to submit data to the AU and AR modules. AU and AR reporting requirements are listed below.

• CDC's AUR Homepage
• CDC’S NHSN AUR Promoting Interoperability Guidance
• CDC’s FAQs: AUR Reporting for the CMS Promoting Interoperability Program

• CDC FAQs

   

• What is Standardized Infection Rate (SIR)?
  • The SIR is the most widely used summary measure in NHSN. The SIR is the ratio of the number of observed healthcare-associated infections to the number of predicted infections. The SIR is risk-adjusted to account for the underlying risk of infection in the population being measured.
    • A SIR >1 means that more infections were observed than predicted.
    • A SIR <1 means fewer infections were observed than predicted.

    • A SIR = 1 means there was no difference from the national baseline.

      The SIR enables “apples to apples” comparisons of HAI data across facilities and hospital unit types, as well as comparisons with state and national data. For more information on the SIR, see NHSN's Guide to the SIR?

• What is a SAAR?
  • The Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratio (SAAR) is a risk-adjusted summary measure of antimicrobial use. The SAAR is available to acute care hospitals participating in the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Antimicrobial Use (AU) Option. Hospitals can use the SAAR to track AU, compare their AU to a national benchmark, and assess the impact of interventions aimed at improving prescribing practices.  The SAAR compares observed antimicrobial days to predicted antimicrobial days for groups of antimicrobial agents used in specified patient care locations. 
    • A SAAR > 1.0 indicates more antimicrobial days were observed than predicted
    • Conversely, a SAAR < 1.0 indicates fewer antimicrobial days were observed than predicted
       

As part of the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services efforts to prevent Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) a North Dakota HAI team member will email Targeted Assessment for Prevention (TAP) reports quarterly and the Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratio (SAAR) report twice a year to facility appointed representatives. The TAP reports can be generated within NHSN for central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and clostridium difficile infection (CDI) data. The reports will rank facilities (or locations) by the cumulative attributable difference (CAD), which is the number of infections that must be prevented to achieve a HAI reduction goal. The ranking is established using the overall CAD (highest to lowest). TAP Reports can help to prioritize the facilities where the greatest prevention impact could be achieved (acute care hospital (ACH), critical access hospital (CAH), Dialysis, inpatient rehabilitation (IR), long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) facilities only). The biannual SAAR reports cover calendar year January-June and July-December.