Effect of Time of Daily Data Collection on the Calculation of Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infection Rates.

Introduction: According to the (NHSN) definitions for Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) rates, determination of the number of urinary catheter days must occur by calculating the number of catheters in place "for each day of the month, at the same time of day" but does not define at what time of day this occurs. The purpose of this review was to determine if a data collection time of 11 am would yield a greater collection of urinary catheter days than that done at midnight.

Methods: During a 20-month period, the number of urinary catheter days was calculated using once-a-day electronic measurements to identify a urinary catheter presence.

Real-Time Electronic Tracking of Diarrheal Episodes and Laxative Therapy Enables Verification of Clostridium difficile Clinical Testing Criteria and Reduction of Clostridium difficile Infection Rates.

Health care-onset health care facility-associated infection (HO-CDI) is overdiagnosed for several reasons, including the high prevalence of colonization and the inability of hospitals to limit testing to patients with clinically significant diarrhea. We conducted a quasiexperimental study from 22 June 2015 to 30 June 2016 on consecutive inpatients with test orders at an academic hospital. Real-time electronic patient data tracking was used by the laboratory to enforce testing criteria (defined as the presence of diarrhea [≥3 unformed stools in 24 h] and absence of laxative intake in the prior 48 h).