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

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 P  = .348). Conclusion We aggressively targeted CAUTI prevention, but a reduction was observed only with the new definition. Our findings stress the importance of having a reasonably accurate surveillance definition to monitor infection prevention initiatives.