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Website spotlight: New NPSG addresses CAUTIs: What you need to know for compliance

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, August 19, 2011

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The Joint Commission released a new National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) on May 17. The new goal, NPSG.07.06.01, addresses the need to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). It's similar to previous NPSGs on infection control.

According to The Joint Commission, CAUTI is the most frequent healthcare-acquired infection (HAI) and represents up to 80% of HAIs in hospitals. The goal applies only to hospitals and critical access hospitals, which should start conducting a gap analysis to understand where they are in relation to what is now required, says Elizabeth Di Giacomo-Geffers, RN, MPH, CSHA, a healthcare consultant in Trabuco Canyon, CA, and advisory board member for the Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals (AHAP). She notes that the goal does not apply to pediatric populations.

NPSG.07.06.01 was one of two proposed goals; the other concerned ventilator-associated pneumonia. However, due to the lack of an agreed-upon definition for this HAI, it failed to pass as a goal, according to a Joint Commission statement.

"The new NPSG on CAUTIs has a realistic overall goal," says Jodi Eisenberg, MHA, CPHQ, CPMSM, CSHA, manager of accreditation, clinical compliance, and policy management at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and AHAP advisory board member. Eisenberg notes that The Joint Commission is leaving the details of implementation to individual hospitals.

Hospitals must have a plan in place by 2012 for full implementation by January 1, 2013. The goal essentially requires hospitals to follow evidence-based practices from the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America's Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Guideline for Prevention of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections, 2009, for insertion and management practices of urinary catheters.

Editor's note: To read the rest of this free article, visit the Reading Room, part of www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com.

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