The National Healthcare Safety Network’s (NHSN’s) Multidrug-resistant Organism/Clostridioides difficile (MDRO/CDI) Module serves as a surveillance platform for tracking antibiotic-resistant laboratory-identified (LabID) organisms. LabID event surveillance, which does not require submission of clinical data to NHSN, provides proxy measures for MDRO burden. While surveillance of some organisms is federally mandated, these requirements do not extend to vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). We sought to describe the extent of acute care hospital (ACH) participation in NHSN VRE surveillance and identify facility-level factors associated with VRE bacteremia. These could explain differences in VRE incidence and be used in preparation for a national risk-adjusted benchmark.

ACHs that reported at least one month of facility-wide inpatient (FacWideIN) VRE bacteremia LabID Event data to NHSN in 2017 were included in the analysis. LabID events were categorized as healthcare facility-onset (HO), defined as a laboratory result for a specimen collected ≥4 days after admission, or community-onset (CO), defined as a specimen collected < 4 days after admission. Monthly patient day and admission denominators were used to calculate FacWideIN HO incidence and CO prevalence rates. Univariate analyses were performed on facility-level factors from NHSN’s annual hospital survey to assess their relationship with HO VRE bacteremia.

A total of 544 HO VRE bacteremia events were reported by 498 hospitals in 37 states. About 67% of reporting hospitals were located in California. The national rate of HO VRE bacteremia was 0.27 per 10,000 patient-days and the CO VRE bacteremia rate was 0.58 per 10,000 admissions. Major medical school affiliation, hospital type, larger number of beds and ICU beds, longer average length of stay and the presence of an oncology unit were significantly associated with HO VRE bacteremia (Table 1).

Based on the VRE data reported to NHSN, certain facility-level factors may contribute to a higher incidence of HO VRE bacteremia. Future analyses can allow us to determine whether these factors are independently associated with VRE. Risk-adjusted surveillance data can help guide facilities and states to compare their burden of VRE to a national benchmark.

All authors: No reported disclosures.