CAUTI Elimination: A Systematic Elimination of CAUTI in Long-Term Care Facility

Abstract

Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) in nursing-home residents is commonly associated with multiple problems. Lack of proper intervention to prevent CAUTI in the elderly and frail nursing-home residents leads to sepsis, hospitalization, and antimicrobial use, ultimately causing the colonization with multidrug- resistant organisms (MDROs). Furthermore, it inflates the costs. The project aims to systematically determine an approach to eliminate CAUTI in long-term care facilities. There, the establishment of antibiotic stewardship is at its infancy stage. The CAUTI project contributes significantly to the wide-reaching efforts to reduce the threats posed by antimicrobial-resistant organisms. The crucial element of an impactful strategy is the prevention by utilizing evidence-based bundle of care education and evidence-based urinary catheter protocols (UCP), both funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The CAUTI project’s outcome is measured using National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the symptomatic definition of CAUTI provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to identify and count the cases in the unit; the team uses the NHSN’s data for benchmarking. The qualitative and quantitative methodology approaches utilized to implement a CAUTI prevention strategy at Burbank Healthcare Center and Rehabilitation. Thirty participants were selected out of 172 populations during the study for the CAUTI project. The findings indicate that 11 out of 30 participants developed CAUTI, of which three acquired it at the facility and eight at the community. Further, although female participants were fewer than males, females seem to develop a CAUTI with higher frequency than male participants.