Patrick Brockway, patient care coordinator at our Firefighters Burn Center, is being honored for research he spearheaded into a new way to prevent Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections, or CAUTIs.
The research helped lead the burn center to a dramatic decrease in CAUTIs, thereby improving patient care.
Brockway and his fellow researchers will present their findings at national conferences to help other providers who care for critically injured patients avoid catheter-related infections.
Research conducted at Regional One Health’s Firefighters Burn Center is highlighting a new way to lower the risk of infection for seriously injured patients.
It has become a standard of care at the Firefighters Burn Center, and soon the study leaders will present their findings to providers across the country.
Patrick Brockway, burn center patient care coordinator, was honored with a STAR Research Achievement Award by the Society of Critical Care Medicine, which recognizes excellence in clinical care research. He will share his findings during the 2023 Critical Care Congress.
Seriously injured patients who require a catheter are at risk of Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections, or CAUTIs. Research done at the Firefighters Burn Center is highlighting a new way to avoid infections.
Brockway’s project, titled “Reducing CAUTI Events with Active Drain Line Clearance: A Retrospective Observational Study,” shows how using a different type of catheter system helped prevent infections in seriously injured burn patients.
Brockway’s research is based on the burn center’s use of the Accuryn Monitoring System, which transforms a traditional Foley catheter into a monitoring device with several critical features.
“It allows us to keep track of the hourly urine output, and it also monitors temperature and inter-abdominal pressure,” Brockway explained. “It’s used for very critically injured patients.”
After using the product for a while, Brockway noticed something interesting.
Previously the burn center had about a dozen cases of CAUTI, or Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection, every year. After starting to use Accuryn, they dramatically lowered the CAUTI events to one every year-and-a-half our two years.
“I thought, ‘There’s something here,’” he said.
CAUTIs are most common in patients with prolonged catheter use. With severely injured burn patients requiring catheterization for an extended period of time, it was something care providers were always vigilant about as they performed catheter care.
“With complex patients who are critically injured, they may have a Foley catheter for almost the entire time they’re here,” Brockway said. “It can be months in some cases.”
Burn Center employees plan to share their findings at national conferences. “This is a product that can help reduce CAUTIs for our patients, and I hope other burn centers and critical care units take a look at it,” said Patrick Brockway, patient care coordinator.
Brockway partnered with Dr. Ram Velamuri, medical director of the Firefighters Burn Center; and David Hill, the burn center’s research director, along with the manufacturer of Accuryn to start a formal research study, poring over eight years of data to help make the case that Accuryn was indeed helping prevent infection in patients.
“We looked at a lot of numbers. I went back to 2015 to look at the data before we started using the product with patients in 2019. Then, I looked at the data from 2020 through 2022 and compared the numbers,” he said. “Before using Accuryn, our average was 10-11 CAUTIs per year. Post-usage, there have only been two CAUTIs total.”
Brockway said the success is likely due to important design features in the Accuryn product.
“With a standard Foley catheter, the urine tends to stagnate in the line,” he said. “With this product, there is a drain line clearance feature, so it actively removes the urine. That is likely the defining feature of the product that helps prevent CAUTIs.”
Preventing infection is extremely beneficial for patients. “When a patient is diagnosed with a CAUTI, we need to treat the infection with a course of antibiotics,” Brockway said. “That can delay healing, and it’s detrimental overall to the patient.”
Brockway hopes presenting the findings will encourage more providers to explore use of the Accuryn system as an infection prevention tool. Along with his presentation at the Critical Care Congress, he’ll present to the American Burn Association, and his study partners are presenting at a conference in San Diego.
“Any patient who has to be on a catheter for a long time could potentially benefit from this; it’s not exclusive to burn patients,” he said. “This is a product that can help reduce CAUTIs for our patients, and I hope other burn centers and critical care units take a look at it.”