Prevalence and associated factors of hospital acquired infection among surgical patients at Adama Hospital Medical College, Ethiopia.

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) represent a critical concern for healthcare providers globally. They are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among hospitalized patients. Infections occurring 48 h after admission are classified as hospital-acquired. Despite their significance, a paucity of data exists on HAIs in Ethiopia's Oromia region. This study aimed to ascertain the prevalence and associated factors of hospital-acquired infections in the surgical ward at Adama Hospital Medical College. A hospital-based cross-sectional chart review was conducted among 338 patients admitted to the surgical ward. A stratified random sampling technique was applied. Data were coded, cleaned using Epi-Data version 7, and then exported to SPSS version 29 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were employed. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The overall prevalence of Hospital-Acquired Infection among the study participants was 17.2% (95% CI: 13.6-21.0). This indicates that approximately one in every six surgical patients developed an HAI during their hospitalization. Hospital-acquired infection was associated with emergency admission, longer hospital stay, re-laparotomy, and dirty-type wound characteristics. A higher occurrence of HAIs, surgical site infection being the dominant type, was detected in our study. These findings underscore the urgent need for targeted infection prevention strategies, including antimicrobial stewardship and enhanced surgical aseptic techniques, particularly in emergency and dirty wound cases.