Reducing urinary tract infections in care homes by improving hydration

Journal article

Abstract:: Dehydration may increase the risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs), which can lead to confusion, falls, acute kidney injury and hospital admission. We aimed to reduce the number of UTIs in care home residents which require admission to hospital. The principal intervention was the introduction of seven structured drink rounds every day accompanied by staff training and raising awareness. UTIs requiring antibiotics reduced by 58% and UTIs requiring hospital admissions reduced by 36%, when averaged across the four care homes. Care home residents benefited from greater fluid intake, which in turn may have reduced infection. Structured drink rounds were a low-cost intervention for preventing UTIs and implemented easily by care staff.

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Language:: English
Keywords:: nursing homes

healthcare quality improvement

patient-centred care

antibiotic management

FFR

nurses
Pubs id:: pubs:1037348
UUID:: uuid:6a02a24a-099c-42d7-bcb3-2d029db5420f
Local pid:: pubs:1037348
Source identifiers:: 1037348
Deposit date:: 2019-11-13

Notes:: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial.

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