Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections, Essay Example

Following the discussion in Assignment 2 on catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTIs), it is found that is the most common reported infection within the healthcare system in acute care hospital. CAUTIs, must like other HAIs are linked to increased hospital costs, hospital stays, mortality, and morbidity. The common denominator for CAUTIs is the prolonged use of a urinary catheter. The CDC, as well as other health agencies have created several manuals in which outline the recommended steps in CAUTIs, and other HAIs preventions while in hospital care. However, research since the step up from agencies have recently doubted the effectiveness of the recommended actions, as HAIs, specifically CAUTIs have increased. (CDC, 2015) In testing the “effectiveness” of CAUTIs preventions, hospitals must rely on the measurement of internal reporting. “

Consider reporting both process and outcome measures to senior administrative, medical, and nursing leadership and clinician who care for patients at risk for CAUTI.” (CDC, 2009) This is an important measurement, while CMS has over a 100 measurement within the healthcare system. Efficiency is an important measurement, that unlike internal reporting, “they are designed to more accurately analyze and combine resource use with quality.” (CMS, 2009) Both measurements are used in gauging how the health organization is doing their part to prevent the infections from occurring, and if the right people are notified of the issue. For the CMS, it has over 375 measurements in place that surround patient centeredness, outcome, intermediate outcome, process, structure, and efficiency. They track and measure the performance of actions, as well as measures the mortality and mobility rate from the resulting disease or infection. These measures are in place to reflect the experience of the patient with the system that is in place. These measures are essential for ensuring that the patients receive quality care.

References

CDC. (2009). Guideline for Prevention of Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infections, 2009. Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/cauti/003_ImplementAudit.html

CDC. (2015). Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI). CDC. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/ca_uti/uti.html.

CMS. (2009). Roadmap for Quality Measurement in the Traditional Medicare Fee-For-Service Program. CMS. Retrieved from http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/QualityInitiativesGenInfo/downloads/QualityMeasurementRoadmap_OEA1-16_508.pdf