Urinary tract infection following vascular or general surgery

A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection that affects any part of the urinary tract, consisting of the kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra. The most common type of UTI is a bladder infection. UTI’s are one possible complication of general surgery and vascular surgery.

There are risks with any surgery. While some patients have higher risks than others, some of these complications may be preventable. 

About this measure

This measure tracks surgical patients who experienced urinary tract infection after their surgery, based on a sampling methodology developed by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP).

The rate of general and vascular surgery patients who develop a urinary tract infection after surgery is expressed as an odds ratio. This reports the estimated odds of an event happening at Northwestern Memorial compared to the estimated odds of that event happening in all hospitals in the ACS NSQIP database. A number of 1.0 means the hospital is performing as expected. A number less than 1.0 means the hospital is performing better than expected. A number greater than 1.0 means the hospital is performing worse than expected.

Note: While Northwestern Memorial results may be higher or lower than ACS NSQIP comparisons each period, our most recent performance is considered by ACS NSQIP to "need improvement" within the range expected for this surgical outcome.  Given the number of patients in the measure, the results are statistically the same.

In this case, a lower number is better.