Abstract:
Background: Healthcare associated infections (HAI) are associated with indwelling devices. Yet, data regarding prevalence of indwelling devices in non-critically ill hospitalized patients remains scant.
Methods: Adult, non-critically ill patients on general care, telemetry, and surgical floors at our quaternary care hospital were surveyed on two separate days. Data regarding presence of indwelling vascular, urinary, and gastrointestinal devices, as well as nurse to patient ratio on each unit were collected.
Results: There were 1,229 devices observed among the 857 patients surveyed across two days. Of the surveyed patients, 780 (91.0%) had at least one indwelling device. Among all devices, intravenous catheters were the most common (90.1%), followed by gastrointestinal devices (12.8%) and urinary catheters (10.2%). The most prevalent device was peripheral intravenous catheters. The median nurse to patient ratio was 3 patients to 1 nurse; no difference in nurse to patient ratio based on the number of devices present was observed.
Conclusions: Indwelling device use appears highly prevalent in general care settings and variation among devices is common. HAI prevention strategies targeting these devices are necessary.
Reference:
Chen, S., O’Malley, M. and Chopra, M. (2020) How Common Are Indwelling Devices in Hospitalized Adults? A Contemporary Point Prevalence Study in A Tertiary Care Hospital. American Journal of Infection Control. July 1st. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2020.06.205 (epub ahead of print).