Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are commonly reported healthcare-associated infections. It was demonstrated that the urinary catheter alleviation navigator protocol (UCANP) pilot resulted in a reduction of catheter utilization and catheter days.
Quality improvement initiative that was implemented at a single urban, tertiary health care center, focusing on early discontinuation of indwelling urinary catheters (IUC) and avoidance of reinsertion. Protocol was expanded hospital-wide September 2020-April 2022. We compared IUC utilization, IUC standardized utilization ratio (SUR) and CAUTI standardized infection ratio (SIR) in the pre-intervention period (March 2020-August 2020) to the post-intervention period (May 2022-October 2022).
Pre-implementation, 2 patients with IUC removal were placed on UCANP. Post-implementation, 835 (45%) patients with IUC removal participated in the protocol. Number of patients requiring IUC reinsertion did not differ among the 2 groups. IUC utilization was significantly decreased from 0.28 to 0.24 with 14% reduction (p=0.025). SUR decreased by 11% from 0.778 to 0.693 (p=0.007) and SIR by 84% from 0.311 to 0.049 (p=0.009).
Our protocol significantly reduced IUC utilization and SUR after hospital-wide implementation. UCANP is a safe and effective strategy that can potentially decrease unnecessary IUCs in patients with transient urinary retention.
American journal of infection control. 2024 Jun 12 [Epub ahead of print]
Geehan Suleyman, Mallory E McCormick, Nicholas McLenon, Eman Chami, Edward Pollak, Ali A Dabaja
Performance Excellence and Quality, Henry Ford Health. Electronic address: ., Department of Urology, Henry Ford Health., Medical Group Administration, Henry Ford Health., Performance Excellence and Quality, Henry Ford Hospital., Performance Excellence and Quality, Henry Ford Health., Henry Ford Health, Department of Urology.