Background: An indwelling urinary catheter is used in ~12%–16% of adult hospital inpatients during their hospitalization, which poses risks for acquiring a catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI). CAUTI data have been reported to the NHSN since 2005, and national benchmarks are annually reported in NHSN progress reports. Trends analyses in the incidence of CAUTI reported to the NHSN over long time have not been previously assessed. Objective: We investigated the national trends of CAUTI incidence separately for intensive care units (ICUs) and wards in acute-care hospitals (ACHs) from 2009 through 2018. Methods: We analyzed CAUTI data from ACHs reported to NHSN in 2009–2018. To evaluate trends of CAUTI incidence (per 1,000 catheter days), we conducted interrupted time-series analysis using negative-binomial mixed-effects modeling, separately for ICUs (nonneonatal ICUs) and wards. Due to the reporting requirement for adult and pediatric ICUs in 2012, and medical, surgical, and medical-surgical wards in 2015 by the CMS and the institution of the NHSN CAUTI definitional changes in 2015, calendar years 2012 and 2015 were treated as interruptions to the outcome in ICU models, and year 2015 was treated as a single interruption in the ward models. Regression models were assessed and adjusted, as appropriate, for patient care location type and facility-level characteristics such as hospital type, teaching status, bed size, number (and percentage) of ICU beds, and average length of inpatient stay. Random intercept and slope models were evaluated with covariance tests and were included to account for differential baseline incidence and trends among reporting hospitals. Results: The volume of patient care locations and hospitals reporting to the NHSN increased over time. Among the ICUs, the CAUTI incidence rate did not change in 2009–2012 and increased at an average of 5.6% per year in 2012–2014 (Fig. 1). CAUTI incidence rate dropped nearly 40% in 2015; thereafter, it decreased at an average of 8.9% per year. Among the wards, CAUTI incidence rate decreased at an average of 4.3% per year beginning 2009 (Fig. 2). The CAUTI incidence rate dropped almost 28% in 2015 and then decreased at an average of 4.3% per year. Conclusions: CAUTI incidence decreased substantially in 2015 among both ICUs and wards, which was partially attributable to CAUTI definitional change (see also Fig. 7 at https://www.cdc.gov/hai/data/archive/data-summary-assessing-progress.html). The significant decline of CAUTI incidence in both location types since 2015 is encouraging, and continued efforts in prevention of CAUTI are vital to sustaining this decline in the future.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None