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Hospital-wide survey of the adequacy in the number of vascular catheters and catheter lumens.
J Hosp Med. 2013 Dec 9;
Authors: Fernández-Ruiz M, Carretero A, Díaz D, Fuentes C, González JI, García-Reyne A, Aguado JM, López-Medrano F
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Removal of unnecessary catheters has been proposed as an important measure to reduce catheter-related morbidity. Nevertheless, there is scarce information about the potential magnitude of such intervention.
OBJECTIVE: The present study was aimed at analyzing the appropriateness of use of vascular catheters and catheter lumens in the inpatient setting.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey.
SETTING: The entire population of adult inpatients admitted to a 1368-bed tertiary-care hospital in a single day.
MEASUREMENTS: We used a set of preestablished criteria to evaluate the appropriateness of use of vascular catheters and catheter lumens according to the number and administration regimen of intravenous drugs.
RESULTS: Out of 834 patients, 575 (68.9%) had ≥1 vascular catheters in place on the day of the survey. The type and distribution of the 703 surveyed catheters were peripheral venous catheter, 80.6%; central venous catheter, 15.8%; and arterial catheter, 3.6%. We found an overall mean of 2.06 ± 0.82 lumens per catheter, with significant differences between intensive care units and conventional wards (P < 0.0001). Based on our criteria, 126 out of 575 patients (21.9%) had an inappropriate number of catheters (medical wards, 20.0%; surgical wards, 23.9%; intensive care units, 26.3%), and 631 out of 14248 nonarterial catheter lumens (43.6%) were considered unnecessary.
CONCLUSIONS: Significant room exists for improving the adequacy of the number of vascular catheters and catheter lumens as a potentially useful tool for decreasing the incidence of catheter-related bloodstream infection. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2013;. © 2013 Society of Hospital Medicine.
PMID: 24323802 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]