Reducing catheter-associated urinary tract infections through best practice: Sherwood Forest Hospitals' experience

Essential to the prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) is adherence to best catheterisation practice (Royal College of Nursing, 2012; Loveday et al, 2014) across a healthcare setting, which must be continually monitored and reinforced. Owing to time constraints in secondary care, individualised instances of suboptimal catheterisation practice may occur. When staff are continually working in a high-pressure environment with limited time resources, such instances of suboptimal practice may become increasingly frequent, leading to poor patient outcomes.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust covers three hospitals sites at King's Mill, Newark and Mansfield. In 2014, the Trust's senior teams became aware that catheterisation outcomes within the Trust were suboptimal. This was identified after a locally applied Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) was put in place to aid the reduction of CAUTI-related bloodstream infections (BSIs). The themes identified from this work informed the senior teams that catheter management was suboptimal.