How did we develop the strategies that we have compiled on this website? Through years of research in the field with hospitals across the United States. One of the primary objectives of our research has been to develop strategies to optimize successful implementation of key practices for preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI).
We began our work over a decade ago by conducting numerous meta-analyses, economic evaluations, narrative and systematic reviews, and primary studies that helped define what should be done to prevent CAUTI. We then turned our attention to implementation research to see how hospitals are translating research findings and guideline recommendations into everyday clinical practices. For example, in 2009 we conducted a survey of over 800 hospitals across the United States, including 140 hospitals in Michigan, to learn more about which infection prevention practices have been implemented.
We then conducted qualitative interviews and/or site visits with 14 hospitals across Michigan to find out what worked for them in reducing indwelling urinary catheter use and CAUTI, what did not work, and why. (Of note, we had conducted a previous national survey in 2005 and site visits of both Michigan and non-Michigan hospitals between 2006 and 2007.) In the course of our multidisciplinary work, we have interviewed over 100 healthcare workers from all levels of the organization, including chief executive officers, chief nurse executives, chief medical officers, infection preventionists, hospital epidemiologists, front-line nurses and doctors, nurse managers, and urologists.
We hope that the information that we have gathered from all of those hospitals and individual interviews will be able to help hospitals across the nation (and even in other countries) to enhance how they are addressing CAUTI prevention.