About HAIs

Key points

  • HAIs are infections that patients get while or soon after receiving health care.
  • Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a serious threat to healthcare safety.
  • Preventing HAIs is a top priority for CDC and its partners in public health and health care.
Hospital Bed in Hallway
Hospital Bed in Hallway

Overview

While we have made progress, patients, providers and public health workers can do more to keep health care safe and prevent HAIs.

Impacts

HAIs cause sickness, death and add billions of dollars to healthcare costs each year.

One in 31

On any given day, about one in 31 hospital patients has at least one HAI.1

Risks

Healthcare procedures can expose you to germs that cause HAIs. These germs can spread between patients, providers, staff and visitors through unclean hands or improper use or reuse of equipment.

Recommendations

What the research shows

CDC publishes data reports to help track national progress and identify focus areas.

What CDC is doing

CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion‎

Learn more about CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP).