Health Care–Associated Bloodstream Infections in Adults: A Reason To Change the Accepted Definition of Community-Acquired Infections

Bloodstream infections occurring in persons residing in the community, regardless of whether those persons have been receiving health care in an outpatient facility, have traditionally been categorized as community-acquired infections.

To develop a new classification scheme for bloodstream infections that distinguishes among community-acquired, health care-associated, and nosocomial infections.