Quality improvement initiative to reduce inappropriate urinary catheterisation on a clinical teaching unit

Indwelling urinary catheters are often inserted and retained without appropriate indications in the inpatient setting, leading to catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). Previous multidisciplinary toolkits have created modest reductions in inappropriate catheterisation, but these effects were not sustained. This study aimed to achieve a 50% reduction in catheter-days and CAUTIs per 100 patient-days in a general medicine ward at a Canadian tertiary care hospital.A preintervention evaluation of urinary catheterisation was completed by retrospective chart review from 2020 to 2022. A quality improvement initiative was then conducted using an interrupted time series design. Patients admitted during the study period to general internal medicine on the pilot ward with an indwelling urinary catheter were included.A physician-targeted intervention in the electronic medical record system triggered reminders for patients with catheters inserted for more than 24 hours. The second intervention implemented standardised discussion of catheterised patients in daily multidisciplinary rounds. Finally, a chronic catheter order was created for patients with chronic indwelling catheters.Our outcome measures were the number of catheter-days and CAUTIs per 100 patient-days. Process measures were the utilisation of electronic reminder features and implementation of catheter review during multidisciplinary rounds. The balancing measure was the frequency of urinary catheter reinsertion following a failed trial of void.Catheter-days per 100 patient-days decreased from 14.2 to 5.8 days postintervention. CAUTIs decreased from 0.47 to 0.31 CAUTI per 100 patient-days. On average, 80% of patients with catheters were reviewed monthly during multidisciplinary rounds. 24 patients required catheter reinsertion postintervention due to a failed trial of void.The implementation of a multifaceted approach on a general medicine ward consisting of physician reminders, standardised discussion of catheters in multidisciplinary rounds and chronic catheter orders was associated with a sustained reduction in catheter use and CAUTIs.