Urinary Catheters - Essay Example

The rate of patients diagnosed with urinary catheters, in the United States is said to be approximately 17-28%. Out of the patients diagnosed 80% of the patients have urinary tract infections that are linked to urinary catheters. A patient who gets infected with a catheter-associated UTI has a significant risk of extended usage of the urinary catheter. Many disadvantages come about from the infection of catheter-associated urinary tract infections. The side effects include the burden of paying hospital bills, long stay at the hospital, morbidity, and mortality. Research indicates that an approximated number of reported infections of about 38,000 are recorded in the year. Out of the reported cases, 9000 deaths are reported each year. A patient’s duration in the hospital is influenced by CAUTI, which can extend the period to up to 2-4 days. The United States government devotes a full million dollars. Treatment of the disease is quite expensive (Cdc.gov, 2015).

There are several health complications associated with urinary tract infections that patients can suffer if infected. Urinary tract infection damages the urinary drainage system of the patient and causes unnecessary antimicrobial use. The urinary drainage system if infected becomes the habitat for multidrug-resistant bacteria which is easily and quickly spread to other patients. The aim of this paper, the nursing proposal is to focus on the different ways of preventing and minimizing the rates of infections of CAUTI.

Patients diagnosed with CAUTI can implement a quality improvement (QI) program that would help them improve their health and management of the disease. The improvement (QI) program helps reduce the risks of CAUTI based on the health care organization’s risk assessment. The program helps the patients monitor and use catheters appropriately. Improvement program helps identify and realize the importance of urinary catheter and also gives the necessary information on how and when to remove the catheters when it is no longer needed. An improvement (QI) program will help healthcare practitioners take great care of their patients and maintain the recommended standards of hygiene of the urinary catheter. With the help of the program experienced and well-trained health professionals will be able to insert urinary catheters using disinfected procedure and sterile equipment. The health care professionals will be in a position to maintain the urinary catheters by ensuring that the urinary drainage system is free from blockage (Cdc.gov, 2015).

The recording of electronic medical records can be measured by a proposed outcome measurement tool. The records that are documented by the device include Visicu, Cerner, and Epic, which are important in determining and identifying the dates of catheter insertions of their removal. Many health centers nowadays use the electronic medical record system since it helps ease the monitoring of CAUTI infections and progress in patients. Urinary catheters are considered the most convenient for providers and caregivers. (2015) attributed the mortality to the lack of proper treatment of CAUTI which resulted in urosepsis. However, with the incorporation of the improvement (IQ) program and electronic medical record system, it is much easier to manage the illness easily.