A survey of nearly 1,000 nursing homes in the U.S. found little consistency across nursing homes of policies implemented to prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs), according to a new study presented at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
Led by Patricia Stone, PhD, RN, FAAN, researchers from the Center for Health Policy at Columbia University School of Nursing surveyed nursing homes across the U.S. in 2014. Responses from 955 nursing homes with 88,135 residents were linked to infection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to identify policies and practices associated with lower UTI prevalence. According to the study, 5.4 percent – or more than 4,700 nursing home residents – suffered from a UTI every month. If a resident had a catheter, they were four times more likely to get a UTI than if they did not have a catheter at all. However, more infections were not associated with catheter use than those that were.
