A Clinical Nurse Specialist-Led Initiative to Reduce Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection Rates Using a Best...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Practice
• Infection Control
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) are significant hospital-acquired infections.
• CAUTI increases patient morbidity and length of hospital stay.
• Effective infection control strategies are crucial in rehabilitation settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To decrease CAUTI rates to below 1 per 1000 catheter days.
• To reduce the utilization of urinary catheter devices.
• To enhance staff compliance with documentation standards for urinary catheters.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a best practice initiative led by a clinical nurse specialist.
• Bundle of interventions: education, competency assessment, simulation, and audits.
• Comparison of infection rates, device utilization, and electronic health record documentation before and after the intervention.

Main Results:

• CAUTI rates decreased from 16.67 to 0 per 1000 catheter days.
• Urinary catheter device utilization ratio dropped from 0.122 to 0.056 per patient day.
• Improved documentation accuracy for catheter necessity, care, patient education, and urine output.

Conclusions:

• The initiative effectively reduced CAUTI and device utilization.
• Sustained zero infection rates were achieved post-initiative.
• Enhanced adherence to documentation requirements was observed.