Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Prevention of "Naughty CAUTIs"

In 2009, St. James Mercy Hospital implemented a new quality and patient safety initiative, Achieving Clinical Transformation. This initiative focused on five hospital-acquired clinical conditions: catheter-associated urinary tract infection, ventilator-associated pneumonia, pressure ulcers, falls with injuries and central-line infections. The hospital created teams for each indicator. The CAUTI team named their team "naughty CAUTIs" with the goal of keeping staff aware of the seriousness of urinary tract infections. They reviewed the hospital's infection rate and device utilization for CAUTIs and realized the rate was above the National Health Safety Network average.