Essay Example: Preventing CAUTIs in ICU Patients

CAUTI stands for Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection. It is an infection which may develop into kidney infections if not diagnosed and treated on time. ICU contains patients who are seriously ill. They are vulnerable to CAUTIs because, they may not be able to feed by themselves, egest or even urinate. To help the patient excrete, catheter are then used. If this catheter are not cleaned properly and frequently, they may cause CAUTI. To prevent CAUTI, catheter should be washed frequently.

Patient centered quality improvement has faced a number of challenges which include; preventing CAUTIs and preventing fouls. Hospital conditions can be deplorable, patients need to be involved in making suggestions on how treatment should be. The purpose of this paper is to indicate how the services provided to patients can be improved.

Literature Review

Patient centered quality improvement problem has been that, the doctors have been making all treatment decisions. In order to overcome the challenge, patients need to be active to participate in taking care of their health (Gilkey).

Patient centered quality improvement problem results from faulty systems and processes. About 16 percent of patients may receive short-term indwelling urinary catheters. The prevalence of urinary catheter use in residents in long-term care (LTC) facilities in the United States is estimated to be around 5 percent.3 However, the overall prevalence of long-term indwelling urethral catheterization use is unknown. However, the overall prevalence of long-term indwelling urethral catheterization use is unknown. The daily risk of acquisition of urinary infection varies from 3 to 7 percent when an indwelling urinary catheter remains in place.4 (Ballard)Patient centered quality improvement can be measures in terms of structures, outcomes and processes (Clancy).

Methods used to measure quality improvement includes:

Assessing whether the organization has an effective program

Assessing vulnerable populations

Assessing the outcome data

Determining financial status and its impact to health service provision

The methods provides feedback stakeholders about the organizations progress towords transformation and the outcomes of the care that is provided (Kelz).

Initiative is needed to standardize the health services. This will reduces reliance on doctors decisions. By revising the policies, many of these initiatives were able to realize that, the benefit of making the new process easier will decrease the effect of error associated with limited vigilance and attention (Improvement).

Describe the Quality Improvement Process

Quality Improvement Process is the act of making the services to clients better. In health, it may include maintaining hygiene by cleaning medical instruments, provision quality operation equipments and ensuring that the place where the patients are is clean.

Tools used in patient quality improvement can be technological tools or statistical tools. Technological tools are the software and automated machines while statistical tools include; histograms, bar charts, checklists and Pareto diagrams among others. This tools are used to identify the utilization of the bed.

References

Ballard, D. J. (n.d.). Achieving STEEEP Health Care.

Clancy, C. M. (n.d.). How Patient-Centered Healthcare Can Improve Quality.

Gilkey, M. B. (n.d.). Patient Advocacy for Health Care Quality.

Improvement, Q. (n.d.). Anita Finkelman.

Kelz, R. R. (n.d.). Surgical Quality Improvement.