THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Many U.S. hospitals aren’t taking simple steps to lower the odds that patients won’t get a urinary tract infection from their catheter, a new study says.
A set of three key practices can reduce the risk of a UTI caused by catheter when a patient is in the hospital, researchers argue in JAMA Network Open.
But few general hospitals and even fewer VA hospitals have adopted the three practices, researchers found.
“The most effective strategies — such as prompting clinicians to reassess whether a catheter is still needed and empowering nurses to remove it when appropriate — should be embedded in everyday care,” lead researcher Dr. Sanjay Saint, professor emeritus of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, said in a news release.
UTIs aren’t merely uncomfortable conditions, but can lead to life-threatening systemic infections and sepsis if left untreated, researchers said in background notes.
In the new study, researchers set out to see whether any progress had been made in preventing catheter-related UTIs.
The team analyzed data from more than 1,400 hospitals interviewed as part of an ongoing series of surveys on infection control and prevention. The surveys occurred every four years since 2005, with the latest in 2025.
Results showed that 49% of general hospitals and 32% of VA hospitals have a system in place to remind doctors that their patient has a catheter, or require doctors to proactively renew a patient’s catheter after a certain amount of time.
Likewise, just 58% of general hospitals and 38% of VA hospitals let nurses remove catheters without a doctor’s order if they feel a patient can try urinating on their own.
These three practices have the strongest evidence behind them in reducing UTIs from catheters, researchers said.
“It is quite surprising that reminders to prompt clinicians to reassess catheters’ necessity have not improved significantly in recent years, given these strategies are low-cost, effective and many health systems have already embedded these types of reminders into electronic medical record workflows,” senior researcher Dr. Jennifer Meddings, a professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Michigan, said in a news release.
The study found that progress has been made — for example, the use of reminders and renew orders increased from 9% to 49% between 2005 and 2025.
“Looking back over 20 years, it is encouraging to see how far hospitals have come in recognizing that urinary catheters are not benign devices and in building systems to use them more thoughtfully,” Saint said. “At the same time, our findings are a reminder that progress is not self-sustaining.”
Hospitals can leverage their electronic medical record systems to help promote these practices, Meddings argued.
“This can include reminding and prompting clinicians, within the electronic order for inserting catheters, to only place indwelling catheters for a list of clinically appropriate reasons, and easily reminding them of potential alternatives such as external catheter placement,” Meddings said. “These types of orders serve as just-in-time education or re-education for clinicians, which is particularly important for trainee physicians who place the majority of catheter orders in many hospitals.”
Doctors also can use portable ultrasound devices to scan the bladder and guide their decision-making about catheter placement, researchers said. Hospitals did better by this measure, with more than 70% using such scanners.
The findings were published Oct. 6.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on catheter-associated UTIs.
SOURCES: University of Michigan, news release, Oct. 6, 2026; JAMA Network Open, Oct. 6, 2026
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