I am working with a group to look at complications/1000 catheter days. We have some limitations in our system that doesn't calculate the catheter days for the patients that haven't been discharged. Is this a common problem? The ones in charge of this database are telling me that to include the inpatients and their catheter days, that I would have to do it manually! I can't believe that is necessary. (maybe, I don't want to believe it or don't want to do it. <g>)
With all the things that can be done with databases, that this can't be a problem. Does your calculation of 1000 catheter days include all catheters for that month (discharged or not)? Do you have to do any additional daily entry that the line is still in place for it to count the inpatients?
Thanks for any help.
Gwen Irwin
Austin, Texas
We monitor and place piccs. We're about 400 beds( 160 beds are Rehab beds). We have about 900-1000 cath days per month and yes we count them the hard way....maybe someday!
Maureen Lawler CRNI
Clinical Leader Venous Access Team
Salem Hospital
North Shore Medical Center
Salem, Ma 01970
We use 1000 catheter line days over number of phlebitis for rates.... anyone else use this format and willing to share information for a benchmark?
We do collect manual counts of IV line days, online phlebitis reports and I use an Excel spreadsheet for reporting.
Diane Mitchell RN