Validation of the catheter-related bloodstream infection: data among the hospitals of the VINCat Program.

Abstract

Introduction: During the last three decades, the surveillance of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) has been recognized as the cornerstone of an effective program of prevention and control of HAIs. Catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) are one of the most common types of HAIs. In 2018, the VINCat program (vigilància de les infeccions nosocomials als hospitals de Catalunya) conducted a national validation of CRBSIs´ data to validate the actual recorded rates and assess the data concordance between VINCat and the participating hospitals. Objectives: To validate the declared CRBSIs data of the hospitals participating in the VINCat program Methods: This validation included 44 participating hospitals divided into 3 main groups according to bed number. All hospitals were asked to submit microbilogical data lists of all registered cases of CRBSIs with Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) and Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) reported to the VINCat during the cut period (March to December) and were subject for validation. Main outcomes were false negative cases of CRBSIs that should have been declared to VINCat and false positive cases that do not comply VINCat criteria for a CRBSI.To evaluate the agreement between the two validators statistically, the Cohen's Kappa value is used with '1' being the highest value of concordance. Results: The total number of validated cases of bacteremia was 2327, of which 585 were cases of CRBSIs. In total, 89 (5%) were discordant cases of which 2 cases (2%) were not declared, 4 cases (5%) did not meet the VINCat criteria and 83 cases (93%) were not shown in the list of microbiology provided by hospitals. The Kappa value between the two validators was 0.92. Conclusion: This validation shows a high level of concordance between the CRBSIs´data declared to the VINCat program and the participating hospitals up to 96% (almost perfect). Therefore, the CRBSIs ´data within the VINCat program are reliable and eligible for the benchmarking and for public declaration.