Revised McGeer surveillance definitions (LTC infection)
Revised McGeer criteria (Stone 2012): surveillance case definitions of infection in long-term care.
Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Suspected infection site
- Urinary tract — without indwelling catheter
- Acute dysuria
- Yes
- Voided urine ≥ 10^5 cfu/mL of ≤ 2 species of microorganisms
- Yes
Result: MEETS the Revised McGeer surveillance definition — Urinary tract — without indwelling catheter.
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What the result means
- Purpose
- A surveillance case definition for counting facility-acquired infections — not a diagnosis and not a treatment trigger.
- MEETS
- The selected site’s required criteria (constitutional + site-specific, plus any microbiologic/radiographic confirmation) are all satisfied.
- DOES NOT MEET
- A required criterion for the selected site is missing; the blocking gap is named.
What you enter
- Suspected infection site
- Acute dysuria
- Acute pain, swelling, or tenderness of the testes, epididymis, or prostate
- Fever (Table 2)
- Leukocytosis (Table 2)
- Acute costovertebral angle pain or tenderness
- Suprapubic pain
- Gross hematuria
The other 46 fields
- New or marked increase in incontinence
- New or marked increase in urgency
- New or marked increase in frequency
- Voided urine ≥ 10^5 cfu/mL of ≤ 2 species of microorganisms
- In-and-out catheter urine ≥ 10^2 cfu/mL of any number of organisms
- Fever, rigors, or new-onset hypotension (with no alternate site of infection)
- Acute change in mental status or acute functional decline (no alternate diagnosis) with leukocytosis
- New-onset suprapubic pain or costovertebral angle pain or tenderness
- Purulent discharge from around the catheter
- Catheter urine specimen ≥ 10^5 cfu/mL of any organism(s)
- Runny nose or sneezing
- Stuffy nose (congestion)
- Sore throat or hoarseness or difficulty swallowing
- Dry cough
- Swollen or tender glands in the neck (cervical lymphadenopathy)
- Chills
- New headache or eye pain
- Myalgias or body aches
- Malaise or loss of appetite
- Chest radiograph interpreted as pneumonia or a new infiltrate
- New or increased cough
- New or increased sputum production
- O₂ saturation < 94% on room air, or a > 3% reduction from baseline
- New or changed lung examination abnormalities
- Pleuritic chest pain
- Respiratory rate ≥ 25 breaths/min
- Constitutional: fever (Table 2)
- Constitutional: leukocytosis (Table 2)
- Constitutional: acute change in mental status (CAM, all 4)
- Constitutional: acute functional decline (3-point ADL rise)
- Chest radiograph not performed, or negative for pneumonia / new infiltrate
- Pus present at a wound, skin, or soft-tissue site
- New or increasing heat at the affected site
- New or increasing redness at the affected site
- New or increasing swelling at the affected site
- New or increasing tenderness at the affected site
- New or increasing serous drainage at the affected site
- A constitutional criterion (Table 2: fever, leukocytosis, acute mental-status change, or functional decline)
- Pus appearing from one or both eyes, present for ≥ 24 hours
- New or increased conjunctival erythema, with or without itching
- New or increased conjunctival pain, present for ≥ 24 hours
- Diarrhea (≥ 3 liquid or watery stools above normal in 24 h)
- Vomiting (≥ 2 episodes in 24 h)
- Stool specimen positive for a pathogen (e.g., Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, rotavirus)
- Nausea
- Abdominal pain or tenderness
How this is calculated
Stone ND, Ashraf MS, Calder J, et al. Surveillance definitions of infections in long-term care facilities: revisiting the McGeer criteria. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2012;33(10):965-977. Read the source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.