November 1, 2023- A physician at Intermountain Health is leading a national effort to reduce one of the most common types of infections that occur in hospital patients to improve care and reduce unnecessary costs.
Payal Patel, MD, an infectious diseases physician at Intermountain Health, is the lead author of new national recommendations developed by five medical societies and published in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, that address updated guidelines for the use of indwelling urinary catheters in hospital patients.
An indwelling urinary catheter is a tube that is inserted into the bladder, allowing urine to drain freely while a patient is in the hospital. As many as one-fourth of all hospital inpatients may have a short-term, indwelling urinary catheter placed during their hospital stay.
However, use of catheters can lead to the development of urinary catheter complications, including catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), which can result in additional illness, longer hospital stays, and additional healthcare costs.
Dr. Patel is lead author of the new national guidelines – Strategies to Prevent Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections in Acute Care Hospitals: 2022 Update – which advocate avoiding unnecessary use of indwelling catheters and recommend caregivers promptly remove catheters in hospital patients that are no longer needed as first steps in preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections.