Promising Results in CAUTI Reduction

While hospitals have made great strides in reducing—or in some cases, eliminating—many health care-associated infections, reduction of catheter-associated urinary tract infections, or CAUTI, has been an elusive goal. Now results from a national project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and led by AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) show that it’s possible to reduce CAUTI.

The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday published a paper authored by faculty of the national project, On the CUSP: Stop CAUTI. The more than 600 hospitals that participated in the first four cohorts of the project saw a 32 percent average reduction in CAUTI rates in non-intensive-care units. The project used a combination of educational interventions, data collection and reporting support. AHA is proud of this accomplishment and commends hospital leaders, clinicians and staff for their work in making it happen.

On the CUSP: Stop CAUTI was funded by AHRQ and led by HRET , in partnership with the Michigan Health and Hospital Association Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality, St. John Hospital and Medical Center, the University of Michigan Health System and the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, with additional faculty support from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Emergency Nurses Association, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Society of Hospital Medicine and Society of Critical Care Medicine.

We look forward to continuing our work on this and other quality improvement efforts to bring patients the safest care possible.