Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI)

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What is this measure?

A urinary catheter is a drainage tube placed in the body to collect urine from the bladder. A catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) happens when germs enter the urinary tract and cause an infection. CAUTI prevention is a high priority for all U.S. hospitals, including Kaweah.

How does Kaweah Delta perform?

Data Source: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) when available or from the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)
Benchmark Source: Rates are compared by the CMS to the U.S. national rate for each Medicare patient type when available, or compared to the predicted rate provided by the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)

Why is it important?

One way to tell if a hospital is doing a good job is to see if the CAUTI rates at that hospital are better than, no different than or worse than the U.S. national average or how the rate compares to what is predicted. If a patient acquires a CAUTI during hospitalization, it could lead to other complications, increase the length of stay at the hospital, and requires expensive antibiotics to treat the infection,

What is Kaweah Delta doing to continue to improve?

A hospital-wide team is dedicated to staff education, promoting best practices and evaluating new products and technology that reduce CAUTI. Kaweah uses research-based practices endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which reduce the risk of infections for patients with urinary catheters including:

1. Proper urinary catheter insertion
2. Proper urinary catheter maintenance
3. Removing the urinary catheter when it is no longer needed

For more information on CAUTI, click HERE to visit the CDC website

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Frontline Perspective

Kristie Alvarado, RN, Infection Preventionist, CAUTI Committee Co-Chair

I’m so proud to be a part of a team that puts patient safety first! It takes a team to prevent CAUTIs and our team of dedicated care givers are extremely vigilant on ensuring the best practices are in place daily to prevent CAUTIs. Our dedicated CAUTI committee is constantly looking at new ways to change and improve our processes until we achieve and sustain ZERO healthcare acquired infections.

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How can patients and families support safety?

To prevent CAUTI patients in the hospital with a urinary catheter can take the following precautions:

• Understand why the catheter is necessary and ask the healthcare provider often if the catheter is still needed.
• Clean their hands before and after touching the catheter.
• Check the location of the urine bag; it should always be below the level of the bladder.
• Do not twist or kink the tubing.
• Do not tug or pull on the tubing.

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