What can Canada learn from the USA's experience in reducing healthcare‐associated infections?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the history of healthcare‐associated infection (HAI) prevention programs in the USA since the early 1970s until today, and provide suggestions how other countries (and Canada specifically) may learn from this experience to accelerate HAI prevention and patient safety improvements in their counties.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a narrative review of literature and personal experience.Findings – US hospitals have had healthcare‐associated infection (HAI) prevention programs, including surveillance for selected HAIs, since the late 1960s‐early 1970s. Such programs began with active surveillance for HAIs based upon the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDCs) National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) system. This system included standardized definitions and surveillance protocols. Since the 1980s, the CDC has developed HAI prevention guidelines, with categorized recommendations for HAI prevention. In the early 2000s, the...