Featured Case Study: North Carolina Hospital Uses AHRQ Toolkit To Reduce Infections

CaroMont Regional Medical Center, a 435-bed hospital in North Carolina, significantly reduced catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) after training staff with AHRQ’s Toolkit for Reducing CAUTI in Hospitals. Before using the toolkit, the hospital had 87 CAUTI events in 2009. Toolkit implementation helped reduce CAUTIs to 31 events one year later -- and reduced CAUTIs to a low of 9 in 2015. Read the case study here.

Toolkit for Reducing CAUTI in Hospitals

The Toolkit for Reducing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) in Hospitals helps hospitals prevent CAUTI in patients and improve safety culture at the unit level by implementing concepts from the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP). Health care professionals can use it to make care safer by following clinical best practices and creating a culture of safety. The toolkit has evidence-based, practical resources that reflect the real-world experiences of the frontline providers and researchers who participated in a national implementation project to reduce CAUTIs. It builds on the coreCUSP toolkit by providing specific tools focused on reducing CAUTI in hospitals.

How To Use the Toolkit for Reducing CAUTI in Hospitals

The toolkit consists of three modules—Implementation, Sustainability, and Resources—that a hospital unit can use to teach team members how to apply CUSP to prevent CAUTI. Use of this toolkit in tandem with the AHRQ CUSP Toolkit to create or enhance a culture of patient safety can significantly decrease rates of CAUTI and other risks associated with indwelling catheter use.