Categories: CAUTI, HICPAC, Healthcare-associated infections
June 15th, 2010 12:58 pm ET -
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Jeffrey Hageman, MHS
— Jeffrey C. Hageman, M.H.S.
CDC Epidemiologist and Executive Secretary of HICPAC
CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion
Each morning when I review news headlines about the latest medical research identifying a new cure or danger, questions pop into my head. Was the research study designed correctly? Was the information collected accurately? Does this new research finding mean the older recommendations don’t need to be followed? Fortunately, there are groups of experts who review the evidence, ask these questions, and develop recommendations so that clinicians have the best information available to practice safe care.
One important group that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). HICPAC is a federal advisory committee composed of 14 external infection control experts who come from a variety of medical fields such as infectious diseases, nursing, surgery, critical care medicine, and public health. HICPAC also has a consumer advocate representative, as well as representation from both other federal agencies and professional organizations. HICPAC’s primary function is to issue recommendations in the form of guidelines for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections. Guideline topics range from how to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and surgical site infections (SSIs) to how personnel should clean medical equipment and rooms between patients.
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Categories: Antibiotic use, CAUTI, Healthcare-associated infections
May 21st, 2010 9:02 am ET -
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Linda R. Greene, RN, MPS, CIC
Linda R. Greene, RN, MPS, CIC
As an infection preventionist who is addressing this issue on a daily basis, I agree with Dr. Gould’s interpretation.
Despite the fact that urinary tract infections( UTI’s) are the most common healthcare-associated infection (HAI’s), they have traditionally not received the same level of attention as have other HAI’s. Most UTI’s are associated with the presence of a urinary catheter. Urinary catheters are used frequently in healthcare settings, however many of these catheters are not necessary and are sometimes inserted without appropriate justification. Often, this leads to overuse and misuse of antibiotics to treat these infections, which can lead to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. Because UTI’s can compromise one of the largest reservoirs of multidrug-resistant bacteria in healthcare settings, it is essential that we find ways to minimize their occurrence.
What are we doing about this? The Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) continues to work on ways to bring science to the bedside. In 2008, we developed a catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) elimination guide. This CAUTI guide was developed to serve as a comprehensive tool to questions posed by our members. The APIC elimination guides are developed in sync with guidelines released by CDC, thereby helping to translate evidence into clinical practice and sharing strategies and tools which others have found to be successful.
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Categories: Antibiotic use, CAUTI, Healthcare-associated infections
May 18th, 2010 7:38 am ET -
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Dr. Carolyn Gould
The other day, I was watching my colleague Dr. Sanjay Saint on Medscape and began thinking, “How can we better communicate that urinary tract infections (UTIs) are more than just nuisance infections, and that they are preventable?” So, I want to focus this blog post on one of the most common, yet most preventable, of the healthcare-associated infections catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs).
In looking at the overall number of healthcare-associated UTIs, I am overwhelmed by both the burden and the myths associated with catheter use. Today, UTIs account for more than 30 percent of HAIs in acute care hospitals, and most of these are caused by urinary catheters. Perhaps the fact that many providers out there still believe that certain conditions, such as incontinence, are best managed with catheters is contributing to the CAUTI burden. The reality is that because infection control measures – including removing catheters as soon as possible – aren’t always followed, CAUTIs are causing illness among patients, longer hospital stays, and unnecessary antibiotic use. And more antibiotic exposure puts patients at greater risk for developing multidrug-resistant organisms and Clostridium difficile infection.
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