MDC Urinary Tract Infection Discussion Paper

Discussion 1: In developing clinical and business solutions for hospital improvement, one of the plans should include catheter care and reduction of Catheter related infections. “Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) are costly, common and often preventable by reducing unnecessary urinary catheter (UC) use” (Meddings, Rogers, Krein, Fakih, Olmsted, & Saint 2014). Many times patients are placed on catheters when it is unnecessary for the patient. Many patients will acquire HAI’s because the catheters are not monitored. They must have a d/c order with reasonable time frame for the patient. Additionally, proper catheter care must be provided to the patient daily. This would reduce the cost not only to the patient for medications to treat an infection, but it would reduce the hospital cost if they are responsible for the infection. By this reduction, hospitals could receive payments as rewards rather than penalties for HAI’s such as UTI’s. This overall improves the patient experience because they are not going home with an infection that was given to them by the hospital.

Questions: What are your thoughts? Why? One paragraph, one credible resource

Discussion 2:The business of healthcare is obvious and is always adapting to change as more patients are needing help with complex health issues. There are tremendous waste in healthcare and it is a result of many factors. In this post, I will only be discussing conservation of equipment and training for healthcare workers. The way we reduce cost is to use what we need at the bedside. By taking what is needed and not overuse of supplies. I remember being in the ED and some nurses, me included, would use supplies that really did not need to be used. Since the supplies that were brought to the bedside were already contaminated, even though they were not opened, they would get discarded. One must wonder, if we all did our part by only obtaining what was needed to get the job done, we could reduce waste in this manner.

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Another aspect to this would be the emphasis on training. Training could be paired with the success of my first point. If we trained and remediated staff to use what is needed and to minimize errors by performing the intervention correctly (e.g. starting an IV, insertion of Foley catheter, etc.) the first time we could reduce costs and have a team of highly efficient staff. “Cost reduction in healthcare often involves a deep look at staff. However, taking a closer look at staffing as a means of reducing costs doesn’t necessarily mean layoffs. And since hospitals are already facing a nursing shortage, layoffs might not even be a realistic option. Instead, other elements like training, minimizing overtime, associate retention, and recognition programs are essential to consider in a cost-cutting strategy” (Kaplan & Haas, 2014).

Along with the point of training, when the healthcare professional is well trained in the intervention and equipment that is needed for the interaction with patients the staff become more confident. When the staff is confident, they are less anxious and stressed. The stress level of staff will positively impact patient experience. When staff is confident in their ability to perform their duties efficiently, they have more time with making a long lasting impression for their patient.

Questions: What are your thoughts? Why? One paragraph, one credible resource. MDC Urinary Tract Infection Discussion Paper