An Evaluation of the Adherence to an Indwelling Urinary Catheter Maintenance Bundle

32The purpose of this manuscript is to define the evidence based bundling process that serves as the foundation for catheterassociated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) bundles. Thismanuscript also describes evidence based interventions that, when bundled together, candecrease the hospital acquired CAUTI. Patients are endangered by hospital-acquired infections(HAIs) nationwide. Increasing complexities in healthcare along with HAIs have resulted in risingcosts of medical care. Most of these infections, about 23%-49% of them, occur within theurinary tract system, and 65%-76% of these cases involve an indwelling catheter. It is critical toinvestigate interventions on how to prevent these infections.Evidence based practice (EBP) has evolved over the past few decades transforming theway patients receive nursing care. ‘Bundles of care’ are being considered the radically newavenue to improve the provision of care for patients. These bundles of care usually consist offour to five elements of EBP carried out as a complete set of activities. Bundles are supported byclinical evidence and provide a framework for improving patient care.The implementation of a “CAUTI bundle” can decrease CAUTIs, improve catheter carepractices, and spare hospitals millions of dollars by preventing these hospital-acquired infections.By organizing EBP into a bundle, healthcare facilities can decrease the rates of CAUTI eventsand improve everyday catheter care practices with the ultimate goal of decreasing the cost oftreating CAUTIs while improving patient care.