Device-Associated Healthcare-Associated Infections (DA-HAIs) in Kuwait adult ICUs: A Multi-Center Study

Background Device-associated (DA) health care associated infection (HAI) surveillance in the intensive care unit (ICU) has an important role in hospital infection control and quality assurance. Methods A retrospective study for analysis of ICU surveillance data collected from the monthly surveillance records of the year 2012 from three adult medical surgical ICUs in 3 general hospitals affiliated with Kuwait Ministry of Health. DA-HAIs were identified using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Health surveillance definitions (CDC NHS). Results Overall incidence rate of DA-HAIs was 19.8 per 1, 000 ICU-days. The rates of ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP), central line associated blood stream infection (CLABSI), and catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) were 12.2, 4.3 and 3.9 per 1, 000 device-days, respectively. The device utilization ratio (DURs) for mechanical ventilation, central line catheter, and urinary catheter was 0.61, 0.76, and 0.92, respectively. The overall average length of stay (ALOS) 9.1 days in the studied ICUs. Acinetobacter spp (26.1 %), pseudomonus aerginosa (16.0 %), Candida spp (15.1 %), and Klebsiella spp (11.7 %) were the common isolated pathogens.42 % of the bacterial isolate sassociated with DA-HAIs were found to have multidrug-resistant. Conclusion Device-associated infections in ICUs represent a significant risk to patient health. Infection control surveillance and implementation of evidence based bundled guidelines for prevention can improve patient outcome.