Clinical audit of Urinary Catheter Use

Abstract

Introduction: Nowadays, the improvement of the quality and safety of patient care is a priority focus area among healthcare providers. Healthcare-related infections remain one of the most common patient safety problems, despite the fact that a significant number of them can be prevented by applying good practice. In order to prevent infections and develop appropriate practice, it is necessary to introduce rules for the effective and reliable performance of activities, the rule-following attitude and attitude of employees, and the evaluation of the quality of professional practice. The purpose of this study is to present the professional quality assessment process carried out at the Petz Aladár University Teaching Hospital in Győr-Moson-Sopron County to examine bladder catheterization practice in order to facilitate and possibly standardize the future planning and conduct of similar audits.

Methods: The practice was examined on the basis of the methodological letter on the prevention of bladder catheter-related urinary tract infection issued by the National Chief Medical Officer in 2019, by adapting and developing the clinical audit methodology at the institutional level. In the study, we describe the steps of the quality improvement methodology used for the planning and implementation of the study, the criteria and indicators defined for examining and evaluating the adequacy of the professional practice, as well as the methodology of the documentation analysis, observation, and employee questionnaire implemented to extract the data necessary for the study. We outline the causal research prepared to detect the reasons behind the weaknesses of the practice and the preparation of a priority matrix compiled in order to improve the quality of the practice.

Results: We adapted the clinical audit process, designated critical points of the institution's current bladder catheterization practice, defined criteria for their examination and practical target values. We designed the sheets used to collect the data and the questionnaire needed to assess the employees' knowledge of the topic. With the investigation, we pointed out the roots behind the weaknesses of the practice, formulated proposals for their solution, and also established a ranking of the implementation of development proposals.

Conclusions: The development of professional practice and the improvement of the quality of patient care are impossible without proper evaluation. The methodology presented in the study is suitable for examining the adequacy of professional processes, and regular evaluation supports and can have a long-term impact on the proper, uniform implementation of regulated processes.