CAUTIs and CLABSIs: Do Physicians REALLY Know What They Are?

BACKGROUND: The incidences of hospital-acquired conditions, such as catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) are being used to compare quality at institutions and determine reimbursements. These data come from the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) administrative database that relies almost exclusively on physician documentation as opposed to objective U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. We hypothesize that the UHC-identified rates of CAUTIs and CLABSIs are inaccurate compared with the CDC definitions for these infections. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study from January 2012 through September 2013 comparing the incidences of CLABSIs and CAUTIs, as identified through our UHC database to those identified by the Department of Epidemiology using strict CDC guidelines. We performed subset analysis on those infections identified by UHC but not CDC to determine the causes for these discrepancies. RESULTS: There were a total of 221 CAUTIs and 238 CLABSIs identified during this time frame. Of these, 16 CAUTIs (7.2%) and 44 (18.5%) CLABSIs were detected by both UHC and CDC. 72.4% (42/58) of the CAUTIs and 52.7% (49/93) of the CLABSIs identified by UHC were not identified by CDC. 91% (163/179) of the CAUTIs and 77% (145/189) of the CLABSIs identified by CDC were not identified by UHC. The cause of these differences in identification included lack of culture data, lack of positive cultures, and catheters present on admission. CONCLUSIONS: There is a major disconnect between identification of infections depending on what process is used. This can lead to inappropriate treatment and inaccurate institutional comparisons that impact reimbursements. Because UHC identification of infections are primarily based on physician documentation, educating providers should result in more accurate recognition of infections thereby ensuring appropriate use of therapy.

Impact of Sepsis on Surgical Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is among the leading causes of death in the United States, and patients undergoing surgical procedures are at greater risk for infectious complications. The incidence of sepsis and its association with outcomes among patients undergoing surgical procedures in various specialties were investigated. Additionally, the infectious sources and associated primary procedures were reported for sepsis-related deaths. METHODS: Patients undergoing procedures performed by surgical services at our academic medical center between January 2010 and June 2013 were reviewed. Sepsis was identified by the assignment of related ICD-9-CM billing codes. Patient outcomes included hospital length of stay, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, ICU length of stay, and death. A subset of sepsis-related deaths was reviewed further for infectious sources and primary procedure codes. RESULTS: A total of 25,522 patients underwent a procedure by a surgical service, and sepsis developed in 863 patients (3.38%) during their hospital stays. Overall, patients with sepsis had significantly longer hospital and ICU stays, greater likelihood of ICU admission, and a higher mortality rate. The incidence of sepsis was highest in patients with procedures performed by cardiothoracic surgery (8.39%), trauma/acute care surgery (7.55%), and plastic/reconstructive surgery (5.35%). Sepsis was associated with a significant increase in the mortality rate among vascular surgery, trauma/acute care surgery, and cardiothoracic surgery patients. The most common infectious sources in sepsis-related deaths were pulmonary infections (39.5%), blood stream infections (35.1%), and gastrointestinal infections (31.6%). The procedures associated with the greatest number of sepsis-related deaths were extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, small bowel resection, and insertion of implantable heart-assist systems. CONCLUSIONS: Sepsis is not an uncommon condition and is associated with longer hospital and ICU stays, greater likelihood of ICU admission, and a higher mortality rate. Accurate benchmarking of sepsis is essential for the development and monitoring of sepsis-reduction quality-improvement initiatives.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality patient safety indicators and mortality in surgical patients.

Patient safety indicators (PSI), developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, use administrative billing data to measure and compare patient safety events at medical centers. We retrospectively examined whether PSIs accurately reflect patients' risk of mortality, hospital length of stay, and intensive care unit (ICU) requirements at an academic medical center. Surgical patient records with PSIs were reviewed between October 2011 and September 2012 at our urban academic medical center. Primary outcomes studied included mortality, hospital length of stay, and ICU requirements. Subset analysis was performed for each PSI and its association with the outcome measures. PSIs were more common among surgical patients who died as compared with those alive at discharge (35.3 vs 2.7 PSIs/100 patients, P < 0.01). Although patients who died with PSIs had shorter hospital courses, they had a significantly greater ICU requirement than those without a PSI (96.0 vs 61.1%, P < 0.01) and patients who were alive at discharge (96.0 vs 48.0%, P < 0.01). The most frequently associated PSIs with mortality were postoperative metabolic derangements (41.7%), postoperative sepsis (38.5%), and pressure ulcers (33.3%). PSIs occur at a higher frequency in surgical patients who die and are associated with increased ICU requirements.

Validity of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) screening for sepsis in surgical mortalities.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is among the leading causes of death in the United States. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality uses International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) billing code screening for the identification of sepsis. We investigated the incidence of sepsis in mortality at our academic medical center through ICD-9-CM screening of billing codes corresponding to sepsis and compared this approach for accuracy using physician chart review as the gold-standard. METHODS: Two hundred forty-three surgical mortalities between January 2012 and January 2013 were reviewed by a Performance Improvement team. All mortalities were screened and evaluated for sepsis using physician chart review and ICD-9-CM codes for sepsis (995.91), severe sepsis (995.92), and septic shock (785.52). RESULTS: Unexpected mortalities were associated with higher rates of sepsis and expected mortalities than anticipated (p<0.0001). A total of 40.6% of patients with sepsis suffered from more than one infection; the most common infectious sources were intra-abdominal (43.5%), blood stream (40.3%), and pulmonary (38.7%) infections. Screening by ICD-9-CM identified sepsis in 23.0% of mortalities, and physician review identified sepsis in 25.5% of mortalities. The sensitivity and specificity of ICD-9-CM screening were 82.3% and 78.3%, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 91.1% and 62.1%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Sepsis is a common concurrent condition in surgical patients who die unexpectedly. Screening by ICD-9-CM for sepsis is accurate in identifying patients with sepsis but misses the identification of all patients with sepsis. The diagnostic accuracy of ICD-9-CM screening for sepsis is currently not adequate for public reporting or benchmarking, and is useful only as a guide for institutional quality improvement.

Validity of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Indicators at an academic medical center.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality developed Patient Safety Indicators (PSI) to screen for in-hospital complications and patient safety events through International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification coding. The purpose of this study was to validate 10 common surgically related PSIs at our academic medical center and investigate the causes for inaccuracies. We reviewed patient records between October 2011 and September 2012 at our urban academic medical center for 10 common surgically related PSIs. The records were reviewed for incorrectly identified PSIs and a subset was further reviewed for the contributing factors. There were 93,169 charts analyzed for PSIs and 358 PSIs were identified (3.84 per 1000 cases). The overall positive predictive value (PPV) was 83 per cent (95% confidence interval 79 to -86%). The lowest PPVs were associated with catheter-related bloodstream infections (67%), postoperative respiratory failure (71%), and pressure ulcers (79%). The most common contributing factors for incorrect PSIs were coding errors (30%), documentation errors (19%), and insufficient criteria for PSI in the chart (16%). We conclude that the validity of PSIs is low and could be improved by increased education for clinicians and coders. In their current form, PSIs remain suboptimal for widespread use in public reporting and pay-for-performance evaluation.