A before-after prospective surveillance study to assess the impact of a multidimensional infection control approach for the reduction of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) rates.

Pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) of hospital members of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from 10 cities of the following 6 developing countries: Colombia, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Philippines, and Turkey.

PICU inpatients.

We performed a prospective active surveillance to determine rates of CAUTI among 3,877 patients hospitalized in 10 PICUs for a total of 27,345 bed-days. The study was divided into a baseline period (phase 1) and an intervention period (phase 2). In phase 1, surveillance was performed without the implementation of the multidimensional approach. In phase 2, we implemented a multidimensional infection control approach that included outcome surveillance, process surveillance, feedback on CAUTI rates, feedback on performance, education, and a bundle of preventive measures. The rates of CAUTI obtained in phase 1 were compared with the rates obtained in phase 2, after interventions were implemented.

During the study period, we recorded 8,513 urinary catheter (UC) days, including 1,513 UC-days in phase 1 and 7,000 UC-days in phase 2. In phase 1, the CAUTI rate was 5.9 cases per 1,000 UC-days, and in phase 2, after implementing the multidimensional infection control approach for CAUTI prevention, the rate of CAUTI decreased to 2.6 cases per 1,000 UC-days (relative risk, 0.43 [95% confidence interval, 0.21–1.0]), indicating a rate reduction of 57%.

Our findings demonstrated that implementing a multidimensional infection control approach is associated with a significant reduction in the CAUTI rate of PICUs in developing countries.