The following six findings are from the recently released updated Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of American guidelines on catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
1. UTIs are the most common hospital-acquired infections, with up to 80 percent due to an indwelling catheter.
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2. Between 12 and 16 percent of adult inpatients will have a catheter during their stay.
3. An indwelling catheter carries a daily risk of CAUTI acquisition of between 3 percent and 7 percent.
4. Inappropriate CAUTI treatment promotes the Clostridium difficile infections.
5. CAUTI may not be associated with increased mortality, which may be a consequence of confounding study variables.
6. 2011 national CAUTI rates for adult inpatients, as reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network, were between 0.2 and 4.8 per 1,000 catheter-days.
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