Querying to validate CAUTI

mjulie

Our CDI department has been asked by our Quality department to implement a query to clarify if the CAUTI is valid based on NHSN/CDC guidelines. Our current CDI team do report HACs and PSIs to the Quality department, but validating CAUTI support based on quality guidelines is something we have not done before.

Have other departments faced this challenge, and, if so, how have you tackled this?

Is this something that CDI should be tasked to do?

Thanks for your input.

Julie Martin, BSN, CCDS, CCS

jackietouch@aol.com

I would love to hear how other programs are approaching this, so thank you so much for posting!

I find that I spend a lot of time reviewing the published quality criteria and clinical criteria for many potential HACs/PSIs (CAUTI, CLABSI, post op infections, etc) prior to clarifying, only to find that quality ultimately does not come to the same conclusion as the physician, thus having discrepancy between coded data and quality data. Add into the mix the data collected by programs reporting surgical outcomes and there is even more potential for discrepancy in data reporting. 

Would be great to hear how programs have developed coordinated, streamlined efforts!!

Jackie Touch, RN, MSN, CCDS, CCM, CPN

Linnea.Archibald@hcpro.com

Hi all, I don't have a direct answer, but this topic was discussed in an earlier thread and we also wrote a "From the Forum" article about the topic, so I thought I'd pass it along: https://acdis.org/articles/answers-forum-using-criteria-nqf-ahrq-and-cdc-queries.
Best of luck!