Implementation of an external female urinary catheter as an alternative to an indwelling urinary catheter

Until recently, there has been a lack of viable alternative to an indwelling urinary catheter for female patients that require precise urine output measurements. With the introduction of external female urinary catheters, we can now substitute this type of device for an indwelling urinary catheter in many patients, decreasing their risk of catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

In this retrospective study, we analyzed the impact of a hospital-wide implementation of an external female urinary catheter at a large academic medical center. The study included female patients, greater than 18 years of age. We compared a 12-month period before and after device implementation to assess the impact on indwelling urinary catheter utilization and catheter-associated urinary tract infections rate.

Data included over 220,000 patient days, over 10,000 external urinary catheter days and 33,000 indwelling urinary catheter days. We found a statistically significant decrease in indwelling urinary catheter utilization following the implementation of the external female urinary catheter, but only in intensive care units.

It is our recommendation that facilities first implement the device in ICUs as this level of care was where we observed the most significant impact.