Quality gaps in documenting urinary catheter use and infectious outcomes

Identification of urinary tract infections using electronic health record data

BACKGROUND

Population ascertainment of postoperative urinary tract infections (UTIs) is time-consuming and expensive, as it often requires manual chart review. Using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program UTI status of patients who underwent an operation at the University of Colorado Hospital, we sought to develop an algorithm for identifying UTIs using data from the electronic health record.

METHODS

Data were split into training (operations occurring between 2013-2015) and test (operations in 2016) sets. A binomial generalized linear model with an elastic-net penalty was used to fit the model and carry out variables selection. International classification of disease codes, common procedural terminology codes, antibiotics, catheterization, and common procedural terminology-specific UTI event rates were included as predictors. The Youden's J statistic was used to determine the optimal classification threshold.

RESULTS

Of 6,840 patients, 134 (2.0%) had a UTI. The model achieved 92% specificity, 80% sensitivity, 100% negative predictive value, 16% positive predictive value, and an area under the curve of 0.94 using a decision threshold of 0.03.

CONCLUSIONS

A model with 14 predictors from the electronic health record identifies UTIs well, and it could be used to scale up UTI surveillance or to estimate the impact of large-scale interventions on UTI rates.

National trends in the frequency of bladder catheterization and physician-diagnosed catheter-associated urinary tract infections: Results from the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System

BACKGROUND

It is unclear if bladder catheterization and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) rates have changed since the implementation of public reporting in 2011.

METHODS

We analyzed data from the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System, a national, chart abstraction-based surveillance system, for hospitalized adults with a principal discharge diagnosis of heart failure (HF), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), or pneumonia and patients who had undergone certain major surgeries. We assessed bladder catheterization frequency (percentage of patients catheterized) and risk-adjusted CAUTI frequency (percentage of catheterized patients developing CAUTI) from 2009-2014.

RESULTS

Bladder catheterization frequency declined significantly (6.6% for AMI patients, 8.0% for HF patients, and 5.7% for surgical patients). For pneumonia patients, there was a nonsignificant increase of 1.1%. The risk-adjusted CAUTI rate among AMI patients decreased by 9.7% each year relative to the year before. For surgical patients, the decrease was 9.1% per year. There was no significant decline among HF or pneumonia patients. The overall burden of CAUTI among surgical patients was higher than for the other conditions because surgical patients were more likely to be catheterized.

CONCLUSIONS

There were statistically significant declines in observed bladder catheterization frequency and adjusted CAUTI frequency in some patient populations between 2009 and 2014.

Developing a user-friendly report for electronically assisted surveillance of catheter-associated urinary tract infection

Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) surveillance is labor intensive, generally involving manual medical record review. We developed a prototype automated report through iterative design. Surveys and qualitative interviews were administered to key stakeholders to assess the report design. We found that different provider types expressed different needs regarding report content and format. Therefore, determining the primary audience for reporting data on CAUTI a priori is critical to developing useful reports, particularly as this process becomes standardized and automated.

Inpatient Urine Cultures Are Frequently Performed Without Urinalysis or Microscopy: Findings From a Large Academic Medical Center

OBJECTIVE To describe the frequency of urine cultures performed in inpatients without additional testing for pyuria DESIGN Retrospective cohort study SETTING A 1,250-bed academic tertiary referral center PATIENTS Hospitalized adults METHODS This study included urine cultures drawn on 4 medical and 2 surgical wards from 2009 to 2013 and in the medical and surgical intensive care units (ICUs) from 2012 to 2013. Patient and laboratory data were abstracted from the hospital's medical informatics database. We identified catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) in the ICUs by routine infection prevention surveillance. Cultures without urinalysis or urine microscopy were defined as "isolated." The primary outcome was the proportion of isolated urine cultures obtained. We used multivariable logistic regression to assess predictors of isolated cultures. RESULTS During the study period, 14,743 urine cultures were obtained (63.5 cultures per 1,000 patient days) during 11,820 patient admissions. Of these, 2,973 cultures (20.2%) were isolated cultures. Of the 61 CAUTIs identified, 31 (50.8%) were identified by an isolated culture. Predictors for having an isolated culture included male gender (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.22; 95%; confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.35], urinary catheterization (aOR, 2.15; 95% CI, 1.89-2.46), ICU admission (medical ICU aOR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.47-2.00; surgical ICU aOR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.51-2.19), and obtaining the urine culture ≥1 calendar day after admission (1-7 days aOR, 1.91; 95% CI. 1.71-2.12; >7 days after admission aOR, 2.81; 95% CI, 2.37-3.34). CONCLUSIONS Isolated urine cultures are common in hospitalized patients, particularly in patients with urinary catheters and those in ICUs. Interventions targeting inpatient culturing practices may improve the diagnosis of urinary tract infections. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:455-460.

Beyond Infection: Device Utilization Ratio as a Performance Measure for Urinary Catheter Harm

Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is considered a reasonably preventable event in the hospital setting, and it has been included in the US Department of Health and Human Services National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections. While multiple definitions for measuring CAUTI exist, each has important limitations, and understanding these limitations is important to both clinical practice and policy decisions. The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) surveillance definition, the most frequently used outcome measure for CAUTI prevention efforts, has limited clinical correlation and does not necessarily reflect noninfectious harms related to the catheter. We advocate use of the device utilization ratio (DUR) as an additional performance measure for potential urinary catheter harm. The DUR is patient-centered and objective and is currently captured as part of NHSN reporting. Furthermore, these data are readily obtainable from electronic medical records. The DUR also provides a more direct reflection of improvement efforts focused on reducing inappropriate urinary catheter use.

Denominator doesn't matter: standardizing healthcare-associated infection rates by bed days or device days

OBJECTIVE

To examine the impact on infection rates and hospital rank for catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) using device days and bed days as the denominator

DESIGN

Retrospective survey from October 2010 to July 2013 SETTING: Veterans Health Administration medical centers providing acute medical and surgical care

PATIENTS

Patients admitted to 120 Veterans Health Administration medical centers reporting healthcare-associated infections

METHODS

We examined the importance of using device days and bed days as the denominator between infection rates and hospital rank for CAUTI, CLABSI, and VAP for each medical center. The relationship between device days and bed days as the denominator was assessed using a Pearson correlation, and changes in infection rates and device utilization were evaluated by an analysis of variance.

RESULTS

A total of 7.9 million bed days were included. From 2011 to 2013, CAUTI decreased whether measured by device days (2.32 to 1.64, P=.001) or bed days (4.21 to 3.02, P=.006). CLABSI decreased when measured by bed days (1.67 to 1.19, P=.04). VAP rates and device utilization ratios for CAUTI, CLABSI, and VAP were not statistically different across time. Infection rates calculated with device days were strongly correlated with infection rates calculated with bed days (r=0.79-0.94, P<.001). Hospital relative performance measured by ordered rank was also strongly correlated for both denominators (r=0.82-0.96, P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that device days and bed days are equally effective adjustment metrics for comparing healthcare-associated infection rates between hospitals in the setting of stable device utilization.

A comparison of the microbiologic profile of indwelling versus external urinary catheters

We studied the microbiology reports of urine cultures collected from external (condom catheters) versus indwelling (Foley) catheters. The equal prevalence of Enterobacteriaceae and Enterococci in samples from both catheter types calls into question the practice of switching from indwelling to external catheters to decrease catheter-associated bacteriuria.

Approach to a positive urine culture in a patient without urinary symptoms

Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is a condition in which bacteria are present in a noncontaminated urine sample collected from a patient without signs or symptoms related to the urinary tract. ASB must be distinguished from symptomatic urinary tract infection (UTI) by the absence of signs and symptoms compatible with UTI or by clinical determination that a nonurinary cause accounts for the patient's symptoms. The overall purpose of this review is to promote an awareness of ASB as a distinct condition from UTI and to empower clinicians to withhold antibiotics in situations in which antimicrobial treatment of bacteriuria is not indicated.