Rationale and Comments

Patients in ICUs typically require insertion of catheters and drains for fluid and medication delivery, pressure and flow monitoring, and fluid and gas evacuation. The majority of hospital-acquired infections and unintended safety events are associated with such devices. Daily assessment of need for invasive devices should be an essential element of critical care workflow, to reduce time of exposure by identifying the earliest opportunity for their discontinuation.

Sponsoring Organizations

• Society of Critical Care Medicine

Sources

• Expert consensus

Disciplines

• Infectious disease

References

• Bell T, et al. Prevention of central line-associated bloodstream infections. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2017;31(3):551-559.
  
• Hooten TM, et al.; Infectious Diseases Society of America. Diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of catheter-associated urinary tract infection in adults: 2009 international clinical practice guidelines from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clin Infect Dis. 2010;50(5):625-663.