CDC releases new catheter-related infection prevention guidelines

April 6, 2011

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) has issued new evidence-based guidelines for preventing catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI).

According to the CDC press release, the new guidelines, titled Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections focus on:

Educating and training healthcare personnel
Using maximal sterile barrier precautions during catheter insertion
Cleaning skin with chlorhexidine
Avoiding routine replace of certain catheters

The guidelines replace the CDC’s 2002 guidelines and are available on the CDC’s HICPAC website.

Starting in 2011, hospitals must track central-line bloodstream infections in ICUs to get an annual 2% Medicare payment increase. Lead author of the guidelines, Naomi O’Grady, MD, called CRBSIs “largely preventable.”