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. 2018 Jul;19(4):160-166.
doi: 10.1177/1757177418767759. Epub 2018 May 27.

Establishing catheter-related bloodstream infection surveillance to drive improvement

Carole Hallam  1 , Tim Jackson  1 , Anu Rajgopal  1 , Belinda Russell  1
Affiliations

Establishing catheter-related bloodstream infection surveillance to drive improvement

Carole Hallam et al. J Infect Prev. 2018 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Catheter-related blood stream infections (CRBSI) are an important complication of central venous access devices but are often poorly measured. This article describes the journey of one hospital trust to set up a surveillance process for CRBSI across all specialties of the trust and to reduce CRBSI.

Method: Using a locally adapted CRBSI criteria and root cause analysis (RCA) for investigation we identified a number of opportunities for a quality improvement programme.

Findings: Over a 5-year period we saw a significant and sustained reduction in the rate of CRBSI from 5 per 1000 catheter days to 0.23 per 1000 catheter days.

Conclusions: The surveillance enabled rates of CRBSI to be monitored across the trust and the success of our improvements to be measured.

Keywords: CLABSI; CRBSI; Catheter-related blood stream infections; central line-associated blood stream infections; line surveillance; quality improvement.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
CVAD dashboard.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Cumulative CRBSI rate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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