• Jackrapong Bruminhent, Marjorie Keegan, Adnan Lakhani, Ingram M Roberts, and Joanne Passalacqua.
• Department of Internal Medicine, St Vincent's Medical Center, 2800 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT 06606, USA. Jackrapong@hotmail.com
• Am J Infect Control. 2010 Nov 1; 38 (9): 689-93.

BackgroundCatheter-associated urinary tract infection (CA-UTI) is the most common health care-associated infection. Instrumentation of the urinary tract, mainly urinary catheterization, is the most important risk factor for CA-UTI. It is believed that proper catheter management can reduce the incidence of CA-UTI.MethodsThis was a prospective preintervention and postintervention study conducted to assess the effect of an intervention aimed at preventing CA-UTI. A reminder sticker was placed on each patient's medical record binder to remind the physicians to consider discontinuing any unnecessary urinary catheters.ResultsThere was a statistically significant increase in the number of appropriately retained urinary catheters at 3 months (57% vs 73%; P = .007) and 6 months postintervention (57% vs 86%; P < .001). There was also a statistically significant reduction in the rate of CA-UTI after 3 months (7.02 vs 2.08; P < .001) and 6 months postintervention (7.02 vs 2.72; P < .001).ConclusionA simple intervention using a sticker placed on patients' medical record binder to remind physicians to remove unnecessary urinary catheters can significantly increase the appropriate utilization of urinary catheters and decrease the rate of CA-UTI in community teaching hospitals.Copyright © 2010. Published by Mosby, Inc.

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