Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Eliminating CAUTIs

Using HOUDINI to eliminate CAUTI. It’s all about decreasing the inappropriate use of indwelling catheters—an important step in eliminating catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Lovelace Westside Hospital in Albuquerque, N.M., adopted the HOUDINI protocol to help decrease CAUTIs systemwide. In addition, the 80-bed hospital implemented a nurse-initiated protocol in May 2015 to proactively prevent CAUTIs. This protocol includes reeducating nurses on how to place Foley catheters and provide peri care. Daily audits of Foleys are required, which includes focusing on the proper position of the bag, days in place, peri care and use of the HOUDINI protocol. Surgeons determined they didn’t need as many Foleys and discontinued their use immediately after surgery instead of one day after. To make the best use of time involved in training and educating clinical staff, the hospital prioritized the most important initiatives and those that would have early success, putting others on the back burner. Since February 2015, when the new protocols were put in place, the monthly CAUTI rate at Lovelace Westside Hospital has been zero. In addition, use of Foley devices decreased from 15.46% in October 2015 to 8.9% in March 2016.

For more information, contact Cheryl Sundheimer, director, quality, risk and infection control, at cheryl.sundheimer@lovelace.com. Lovelace Westside Hospital participates in the AHA/HRET Hospital Engagement Network 2.0. The HEN webinar “Eliminating CAUTI: A Focus on Implementation Challenges” is available in both English and Spanish at www.hret-hen.org.