In 1974, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began to monitor trend rates for hospital-acquired infections via the Study of the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control (SENIC). The purpose of the SENIC Project was to evaluate nosocomial infection prevention and control programs in hospitals in the U.S.

This study, performed over a 10-year period (1975 to 1985), examined HAI rates in a sampling of U.S. hospitals before and after the implementation of infection control programs. This and subsequent studies have confirmed the effectiveness of infection surveillance and control programs and have stimulated an increase in numbers of infection control programs throughout hospitals in the United States.