Opportunity for Change 

Central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) remain one of the most dangerous and costly hospital-acquired infections, especially in critical care settings.

Despite strong clinical protocols, early identification is still a major challenge, most cases are detected only after symptoms appear, when the infection has already progressed.

The consequences are significant:

• 250,000–500,000 cases annually in the U.S.
• $30,000–$50,000 added cost per case
• ~16 additional days in the hospital
• High risk of mortality

Symptoms alone are unreliable, surveillance is fragmented, and reporting delays create a window where preventable harm occurs.

Providence identified the urgent need to shift infection control from reactive detection to proactive prevention.

Context

When Early Signals Are Invisible, Prevention Becomes Hard

Even with strong bundle adherence and surveillance workflows, CLABSI detection today typically happens after a blood culture sample is obtained 48+ hours after line placement.

Before this innovation:

• Surveillance was heavily dependent on manual review and delayed reporting.
• Infection Preventionists (IPs) lacked visibility into early risk signals.
• Clinical signs and symptoms were too late and often nonspecific.
• Critical risk factors and patterns were hidden inside millions of records.
• High-risk patients were identified only when deterioration began, limiting intervention choices.

The result: preventable harm, delayed care, and increased mortality risk.

Our Approach

Providence built a CLABSI Risk Prediction Machine Learning Model, a solution that shifts infection prevention from late detection to true early warning. It uses data from 83,000 unique patients and 1.3 million clinical records.

It is a high-performance ML model:

• Achieving an AUC of 0.93 (vs. previous best-in-class ~0.82)
• Delivering balanced accuracy and real-time risk prediction for patients with central lines
• Deployed across 56 Providence facilities supporting large scale prevention
• Consisting of a dedicated IP dashboard that surfaces at-risk patients before infection onset

What it does:

• Identifies subtle risk factors and patterns preceding CLABSI
• Continuously monitors all central-line patients
• Alerts Infection Preventionists for immediate action
• Enables intervention during a window where outcomes can still be changed

Impact in practice

By predicting CLABSI risk before clinical symptoms appear, Providence is redefining infection prevention. Infection Preventionists now have the power to act early, reducing harm, protecting high-risk patients, and improving care outcomes in critical ICU cases where every second matters.