Hospital-wide survey of the adequacy in the number of vascular catheters and catheter lumens

Abstract

Background: Removal of unnecessary catheters has been proposed as an important measure to reduce catheter-related morbidity. Nevertheless, there is scarce information about the potential magnitude of such intervention.

Objective: The present study was aimed at analyzing the appropriateness of use of vascular catheters and catheter lumens in the inpatient setting.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: The entire population of adult inpatients admitted to a 1368-bed tertiary-care hospital in a single day.

Measurements: We used a set of preestablished criteria to evaluate the appropriateness of use of vascular catheters and catheter lumens according to the number and administration regimen of intravenous drugs.

Results: Out of 834 patients, 575 (68.9%) had ≥1 vascular catheters in place on the day of the survey. The type and distribution of the 703 surveyed catheters were peripheral venous catheter, 80.6%; central venous catheter, 15.8%; and arterial catheter, 3.6%. We found an overall mean of 2.06 ± 0.82 lumens per catheter, with significant differences between intensive care units and conventional wards (P < 0.0001). Based on our criteria, 126 out of 575 patients (21.9%) had an inappropriate number of catheters (medical wards, 20.0%; surgical wards, 23.9%; intensive care units, 26.3%), and 631 out of 14248 nonarterial catheter lumens (43.6%) were considered unnecessary.

Conclusions: Significant room exists for improving the adequacy of the number of vascular catheters and catheter lumens as a potentially useful tool for decreasing the incidence of catheter-related bloodstream infection.