[Applying Team Resource Management to Reduce the Urinary Catheter Usage Rate in Our Intensive Care Unit]

According to the literature, 74%-84% of patients in adult critical care units have an indwelling catheter. The majority of medical and healthcare infections are urinary tract infections, which are related to urinary catheter usage. Furthermore, critical infections may cause bacteremia, which increases the risk of mortality. Prior to this project, over three-quarters (78.7%) of patients in our unit used a urinary catheter, which is a rate that is higher than all other intensive care units of our hospital's internal medicine department. Due to Foley placement, removal and care of catheters requires collaboration of teamwork. Thus, the concept of team resource management may be applied to improve the situation.

The aim of this study was to reduce the urinary catheter usage rate in our intensive care unit to less than 69.3%.

This project summarized the reasons for the high catheter usage rate in this unit on 2017/1/3 and implemented several approaches to improve the situation from 2017/2/1 to 2017/6/30. These approaches included affixing reminder labels to indwelling catheters, using an ultrasound bladder scanner as a substitute for intermittent catheterization, evaluating indwelling catheters, establishing flow planning for post-catheter removal, holding cross-team meetings, and adopting a reward system. During the improvement period, we held collaborative conference meetings weekly to discuss solutions, evaluate end-of-the-month progress, and set reward policies.

We lowered the average urinary catheter usage rate from 78.7% on 2017/3/1 to 57.8% on 2017/6/30, achieving a 26.5% reduction in catheter usage.

This project both effectively reduced the unnecessary use of urinary catheters and significantly strengthened team spirit in our unit, thus improving the quality of medical care provided.