Urinary Tract Infections
Catheter-associated urinary tract infections have been detrimental to the quality, effectiveness, and continuity of care in hospitals. The hygiene, insertion, and maintenance of catheter insertions have accentuated the spread of infections and given rise to new issues such as patient morbidity and mortality requiring urgent intervention (Clayton, 2017). Some complications arising from CAUTI include orchitis, prostatitis, meningitis, bacteremia, epididymitis, endocarditis, cystitis, septic arthritis, and pyelonephritis. Notably, Clayton (2017) explains that the risk of CAUTI revolves around the process of insertion, duration of catheter usage, the quality of care, and patient’s susceptibility to such infections. In this regard, the acute care sections of various hospitals require distinct recommendations regarding the proper use and maintenance of catheter care to prevent or minimize CAUTI. A proper intervention plan in this case will involve analyzing the target audience, benefits, proposing professional collaboration teams, costs of implementation, and the basis of evaluating the effectiveness of the design.
The prevention of CAUTI intervention pan is specifically necessary for caregivers, hospital management, and patients in the acute care setting. Ideally, the management has the task of teaching the physicians and other health professionals the recommendations from this plan on handling catheterization processes. Additionally, the management has to step in to provide financial support to cover the costs of modern catheter instruments, training process, enumeration of staff, and maintenance of the treatment intervention procedures. Eventually, the benefits accruing from this plan will be enjoyable and sharable among the management, staff, patients, neighboring communities, and the country as a whole. Notably, prevention and minimization of the risk of CAUTI require distinct recommendations. For instance, IPAC (2018) enlightens that the healthcare professional must ensure that the patient’s condition warrants urinary catheterization before applying it. This is possible through proper diagnosis to determine the exact condition of the patient before selecting the most viable treatment plan.
Secondly, the duration of catheterization should be under consideration. It should be neither too short nor long to contain the issue. Essentially, removing the urinary catheter after serving its purpose is necessary to prevent it from spreading infections to the body. Healthcare professionals should also ensure they maintain proper hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment before inserting or during the manipulation process of urinary catheters (IPAC, 2018). Additionally, nurses handling such patients must ensure they properly document all their processes and drainage system of the catheter. The management should also ensure that strictly trained and competent caregivers undertake catheter insertion and handling processes. Other vital aspects of the catheter involve using the right aseptic technique, the smallest bore catheter preventing any leakages, and inserting using sterilized equipment (IPAC, 2018). Besides, sterile normal saline, anesthetic gel, or single-use lubricants are applicable for cleaning urethral meatus. Finally, they should ensure they secure the catheter tightly after insertion to keep it immobile and eliminate urethral traction.
The last phase revolves around the maintenance of the urinary catheter. For instance, Meneguet et al (2019) recommend that the urinary drainage system should remain closed by reducing the times of opening the system and emptying catheter bags frequently for reflux prevention and urinary flow maintenance. Secondly, placing the drainage bag should be accurate enough below the level of the bladder to prevent the back-flow of urine. Notably, closed continuous catheter irrigation is unnecessary unless physicians anticipate obstruction. On the same note, adding antiseptic and microbial solutions to the drainage bag is a mistake as well as inducing chronic antibiotic suppressive therapy (Meneguet et. al., 2019). Lastly, routine maintenance of proper hygiene through bathing should be part of the teachings for patients and caregivers.
The CAUTI prevention plan comes at a cost although the benefits outweigh the struggles. Notably, the cost of CAUTI varies depending on patient acuity and population. Attributable costs surpass the known $1000 though additional research is necessary to capture its full economic effects. Judging by the past estimates in the US, attributable costs include $880 for inpatient diagnostic tests and medications, $1760 Medicare costs for non- ICU patients, $7700 for inpatient and outpatient Medicare costs, $8400 inpatient pediatric patients costs, and $10200 for ICU patients Medicare costs (IPAC, 2018). Irrefutably, operating an effective and efficient high-quality acute care health setting requires massive installations and maintenance of operations requiring huge sums of money. In the case of preventing CAUTI, the management must pump over $28000 dollars to cater for proper facilities, modern equipment, and extensive research, hiring specialized health personnel, purchasing the right medications, and paying the healthcare providers for their services.
Finally, the benefits that are likely to accrue from this intervention plan are worth the risk. For instance, offering the best quality of care yields better patient outcomes, speeds recovery processes, reduces accumulation of untreated cases, and reduces the number of recurring of already treated cases. Similarly, giving proper care increases patients’ satisfaction and the likelihood of them referring other customers to the facility. Consequently, the hospital will be famous and attract many potential clients hence increasing its revenue and profit margins to the extent of surpassing the costs of operations and installations. Thus, the basis of evaluation of the success of this intervention is on the number of patient recoveries, positive feedback, referrals, and customer plus employee satisfaction. Undoubtedly, preventing CAUTI is an urgent operation that requires immediate consideration and implementation by the management of various hospitals in the United States since the benefits are highly likely to outweigh the costs.