One of the first strategies that hospitals should employ to prevent CAUTIs is the development of an appropriate infrastructure that includes some type of surveillance.
There have been recent publications about efforts to reduce CAUTIs in acute care hospitals. Wald & Kramer obtained data from electronic clinical documentation on surgical units of postoperative patients with an IUC. Their goal was to audit catheter duration and measure the impact of its feedback to nursing staff on duration and CAUTI rates. The nurses were educated about: the definition and epidemiology of CAUTI, harms associated with CAUTI, risk factors for CAUTI, commonly accepted indications for use and alternatives to catheters. The nurses were asked to identify barriers to IUC removal. They were given information about UTI rates and performance measures. These strategies resulted in reductions in IUC duration in both units. Informing nurses about CAUTI rates may be helpful in reducing IUC use.
Nursing 2010 conducted a survey to explore nurses' knowledge of CAUTIs (Dumont & Wakeman, 2010). At least 66% of respondents who work in hospitals noted that their organization tracks CAUTI rates, but most (76%) do not know the CAUTI rate in their organization.
J Hosp Med. 2011 Apr;6(4):183-9
10.1002/jhm.846
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21480488
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