Clinical Care Improvement Strategies: Preventing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections

Clinical Care Improvement Strategies: Preventing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections
2011 © Joint Commission Resources
Joint Commission Resources
Maria R. Aviles M.A.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59940-605-3

Description

Clinical Care Improvement Strategies: Preventing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections is your authoritative guide to ensure the safety of patients who have urinary catheters.

Features include:

  • • A description of The Joint Commission’s new National Patient Safety Goal to prevent CAUTIs
  • • A thorough explanation of best practices to insert urinary catheters, including following appropriate indications, using aseptic technique, and removing these as soon as medically possible
  • • Detailed descriptions of best practices to care for urinary catheters, including properly securing and positioning the  collection system, maintaining a closed system, and checking the collection system
  • • A discussion of how health care organizations should perform surveillance for CAUTIs, including equations for outcome and     process measures
  • • Tips, tools, and case examples to help improve staff compliance with CAUTI preventive strategies (many of the tools are     customizable)

Stop CAUTIs from causing harm to your patients!

  • Urinary tract infections are the most common type of health care–associated infection in health care settings around the world, and the vast majority of these are catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs).
  • As many as half of urinary catheters are placed inappropriately, and one third remain in place longer than medically necessary.
  • Physicians often forget that their patients are catheterized or do not remember why they have urinary catheters.
  • The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services does not reimburse for CAUTIs that are not present on admission.

  • Urinary catheters are inserted for a variety of medically necessary reasons, but as these statements indicate, they can also cause medical harm. Fortunately, the majority of CAUTIs can be prevented by strict adherence to evidence-based guidelines. Additionally, the Partnership for Patients initiative has targeted hospital-acquired conditions, including CAUTIs, for a 40% reduction by 2013. And in spring 2011, The Joint Commission introduced a new National Patient Safety Goal to prevent CAUTIs.

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