Abstract
Introduction: Indwelling urinary catheters (IUC) are well-known to cause serious adverse outcomes in older adults; such as catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), direct trauma, delirium, deconditioning, falls, restrain, prolonged length of stay etc. (Lee E., Malatt C, 2011). Removal of IUCs as soon as the indication is resolved, results in better outcomes (Dawson et al, 2017). We identified high rates of inappropriate catheterisations as a regular practice or part of sepsis protocol in our hospital. This QIP was designed to compare our practice against the standards set by NICE and Royal College of Nursing.
Methods: Two PDSA cycles of 30 patients each, were completed between 2021-2022 (4 months apart), in Acute Frailty Unit and two Elderly Care wards. New IUCs in patients above 65 years were included. Data were collected on, documentation of IUCs, indications, plans for Trial without catheters (TWOC), appropriate management plans and CAUTI. Interventions post first PDSA cycle were; organised teaching to the nurses and doctors, discussing catheters at by-daily board rounds (BR), displaying flowcharts and reviewing IUCs during ward rounds.
Results: Documentation of IUCs improved significantly from 17/30 to 24/30. There was a small reduction in inappropriate indications from 16/30 to 12/30. Documentation of TWOC plans improved from 4/30 to 11/30. Collection of urine samples for CAUTI’s improved from 11 to 18. Our interventions were shown to produce positive outcomes.
Conclusion: Despite continuous education and BR discussions, there’s still room for improvement. Better understanding of catheter associated harm by frailty teams resulted in positive outcomes. Next steps prior to the 3rd PDSA cycle include educating Emergency and medical teams through wider teaching platforms and integrating changes to hospital electronic systems on appropriate documentation and TWOC plans. Our study would be applicable in similar settings nationally and globally to achieve better catheter care in older adults.
Comments
Cauti and inappropriate catheterisations
What an effective quip! Thank you for sharing this
Thanks Cathy and we have progressed in the second phase of intervention prior to the third PDSA cycle to take the message to wider medical and ED teams by presentation in the grand round and ED departmental teaching.