Infection Control

New campaign focuses on UTI reduction

Briefings on Infection Control, September 1, 2010

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Maybe they aren’t among the most dangerous HAIs, but catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) are the most common. In fact, CAUTIs account for approximately 36% of HAIs, according to a March/April 2007 Public Health Report. CAUTIs are also associated with high costs, high lengths of stay, and unnecessary antimicrobial use, which can lead to further complications.

Prevention of CAUTIs requires the appropriate techniques—namely, don’t use a catheter if the patient doesn’t need one—and technology. Enter the “Take Every PreCAUTIon” campaign launched by Bard Medical at the June APIC conference in New Orleans. 

The campaign aims to provide healthcare professionals with evidence-based techniques and technology that can help reduce this common but easily preventable infection. The program offers free, easy-to-use, customizable tools that can be used to establish policies and procedures to ensure consistent practices among healthcare professionals.

Additionally, as many hospitals already know, CMS announced in 2008 that it would no longer reimburse hospitals for the additional costs associated with CAUTIs. This has drawn a lot of attention to the infection, particularly in the C-suite, says Jaime Ritter, MPH, CIC, clinical manager at Bard Medical in Covington, GA. 

“Prior to [the CMS ruling], I think generally people felt that UTIs were kind of inevitable; if you put a Foley catheter in and left it in long enough, eventually a urinary tract infection would occur,” Ritter says. “And lucky or unlucky for CMS participants, most UTIs occur in patients over the age of 65, so most of them fall into the Medicare payment system. Prior to October of 2008, the hospital used to be able to add a comorbidity code to potentially get reimbursement. Well, that’s not the case anymore, so I think that really spurred a lot of people to look at UTIs more seriously.”

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