Evidence Hub

Impact of a change in surveillance definition on performance assessment of a catheter‐associated urinary tract infection prevention program at a tertiary care medical center

Madhuri M. Sopirala, Asma Syed, R. Jandarov, Margaret Lewis

American Journal of Infection Control, 2018

13 citations

Abstract

HighlightsA good surveillance definition is necessary to assess quality improvement initiatives.Outcome data could be affected by changes in surveillance definitions.The Link Nurse Program is effective in preventing hospital‐onset infections. Background: In January 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/National Health Safety Network (NHSN) changed the definition of catheter‐associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI). We evaluated the outcomes of a robust CAUTI prevention program when we performed surveillance using the old definition (before 2015) versus the new definition (after 2015). This is the first study to evaluate how the change in CDC/NHSN definitions affected the outcomes of a CAUTI reduction program. Methods: Baseline was from January 2012 to September 2014; the intervention period was from October 2014 to February 2016. Staff nurses were trained to be liaisons of infection prevention (Link Nurses) with clearly defined CAUTI prevention goals and with ongoing monthly activities. CAUTI incidence per 1000 catheter days was compared between the baseline and intervention periods, using the 2 definitions. Results: With the new definition, CAUTIs decreased by 33%, from 2.69 to 1.81 cases per 1000 catheter days (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.48‐0.93; P < .016). With the old definition, CAUTIs increased by 12%, from 3.38 to 3.80 cases per 1000 catheter days (IRR = 1.12; 95% CI: 0.88‐1.43; P = .348). Conclusion: We…

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free