Medical Institution Decreases Pediatric UTIs by Offering More Training

According to new research in Pediatrics, catheter-related urinary tract infections (UTIs) have significantly decreased in the past few years. Dr. Katherine Finn Davis, who works for the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, found that UTIs associated with catheters have decreased between June 2009 and June 2012 at a local children’s hospital in the Philadelphia area. It is believed that the decrease in catheter-associated UTI rates is due to standardization of and training on urinary catheter insertion, as well as increased training on maintenance practices.

The training included about 200 health care professionals who work at the institution, and these employees were able to train as observers, and were able to verify that they are knowledgeable about proper insertion are capable of doing so. An additional 1,300 medical experts were able to attend an online tutorial on the topic. Before the training session, the average monthly rate for catheter-associated UTIs was 5.41 infections per 1,000 catheter days, and after the session, that rate dropped down to 2.49 infections per 1,000 catheter days.

This UTI decrease comes at an important time, with JAMA Pediatrics releasing new data which shows that young children who contract UTIs are more likely to experience kidney failure later in life. Previously doctors usually used a combination of catheters and X-rays to detect infections in patients who were believed to be at a greater risk for kidney scarring, but it’s clear that any method using catheters carries its own risks for causing UTIs, and many doctors are choosing to re-train their staff on proper catheter insertion or are using a special dye to detect infections. Considering that UTIs are the second most common type of infection occurring in the body — causing over eight million patients to seek medical treatment each year — developing better methods to detect and treat UTIs will certainly be beneficial for many people, and in the case of reducing kidney damage in young children, new methods may actually be able to save countless numbers of lives.