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Catheter is a simple medical device that helps a bed-bound patient urinate properly with the help of a tube and a collection bag for the urine. The tube remains inserted into the bladder to drain urine. There are also catheters for blood transfusion and for administering medicine directly into the veins. The most common urinary catheter infection is UTI. Other catheters are also common sources of secondary infections which may cause additional harm to a patient with other critical symptoms. The list of the causes of a catheter infection are as follows.

Catheter Infection

Healthcare personnel

• Improper hand-sanitization
• Without gloves
• Preference of sight of information
• Inexperience/ improper training
• Infection on the affected part

Environment/ facilities

• Unhygienic home
• Air drafts on exposed site
• Contaminants from pets
• Airborne pathogens

Patient

• Dressing comes off
• Sweat under dressing
• Manipulates catheter at point of contact
• Sneezes on the open part
• Nasal carriage of Staph Aureus
• Poor hygiene

Equipment/ machine

• Improperly fitted caps
• Contaminated supply
• Error in surgical procedure
• Cracked caps

The visual representation of the root cause analysis of the whole problem in the form of a fishbone template is very simple and easy to understand. Finding a solution quickly is only possible when we learn the stimulating factors of any incident. Precautions in advance are always better than the problem we would have to deal with after its occurrence.

Who should use the Catheter Infection template?

• This fishbone template gives us insights to explore all the possible causes of catheter infection. It can come in handy for everyone who wants to carry out a root cause analysis on catheter infection.

Why use this template?

• This fishbone template helps us understand all the causes that can trigger a catheter infection. We would encourage you to play with this template using the smartQED application for your own problem-solving.
• Create or customize your own templates for various types of problem and incident analysis in smartQED

Curated from community experience and public sources:

• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Possible-causes-of-catheter-infection_fig3_235251471