Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Dialysis-Associated Infection Surveillance

Abstract

  This study investigated the current status of dialysis-associated infections, which greatly affects the prognosis of dialysis patients, and evaluated the effectiveness of surveillance and concurrent interventions carried out to decrease infection rates. The initial benchmark infection rate for short-term catheters in our healthcare facility when the surveillance started was 48.61/1,000 dialysis-days, which was significantly higher than the Research Group's rate of 14.55. Comprehensive interventions included improving maximum sterile barrier precautions during catheter insertion and education; furthermore, long-term catheters were introduced. The infection rates were reduced from 33.40 to 9.20 (p=0.05) before (July 2010–June 2012) and after long-term catheter introduction (July 2012–June 2013); the improved rate is comparable to that of the Research Group (8.21). The mean dwell time of short-term catheters also decreased slightly. These results suggest the effectiveness of surveillance in reducing infection rates.