1162. An Evaluation of Metrics for Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs): A Statewide Comparison

Abstract

BackgroundThe Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) is a metric used to gauge catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) prevention, both locally and nationally. The device utilization ratio (DUR) is a process metric that captures catheter harm. More recently, the cumulative attributable difference (CAD) was introduced, which identifies the number of excess infections that need to be prevented to reach the desired goal. Our objective was to evaluate these metrics across all acute care hospitals in Connecticut (CT) by facility size.MethodsA CAUTI Targeted Assessment for Prevention (TAP) Report for acute care hospitals across CT was generated from 1/1/2018 to December 31/2018, using the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) database. CAUTI events, SIR, DUR, and CAD were compared across all hospitals. The SIR goal of 0.75 was used to calculate the CAD. Hospitals were stratified into large ( >425 beds), medium (250 to 424 beds), and small ( <249 beds) based on the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project NIS Description of Data Elements, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for urban hospitals in the northeast region.ResultsA comparison of CAUTI metrics for 29 acute care hospitals across CT is shown in Table 1. Median SIR and DUR were 0.97, 1.02, 0.77, and 22%, 14%, 14.5% for large, medium and small hospitals, respectively. Of the 20 small hospitals, SIR could not be calculated for 5 hospitals, while 2 hospitals had an SIR = 0, as they had no reported infections. Median CAD for large, medium and small hospitals was 6.17, 1.3 and 0.25, respectively. Of note, 40% of small hospitals (J – CC, as in Table 1) had a negative CAD. Interestingly, 5 of these 8 hospitals with a negative CAD had a DUR higher than 16%.ConclusionBased on CT hospital data, metrics like CAD and SIR may be more suitable for larger hospitals or hospitals with higher CAUTI events, whereas DUR may be a more useful metric for smaller hospitals or hospitals with rare events. Hospitals with high SIR and low DUR may represent a population with high-risk catheter use, poor catheter care or higher rates of urine culturing. On the other hand, hospitals with high DUR and low SIR may represent low-risk populations, better catheter care practices or lower rates of urine culturing. Ultimately, we need a combination of metrics to measure preventable catheter harm. DisclosuresLouise Dembry, MD, MS, MBA, ReadyDock: Consultant, Stock options.