Foley's are very common in the hospital and a part of routine care for many patients. They can cause infections as can any other invasive device even with the best care . Medicare has announced that it will not pay for what it considers preventable complications such as utis from foleys. Here is the problem. The patient who wants to smoke and of course can not do so in the hospital went out for a couple of puffs. On his way though the revolving doors he accidentally droped the foley bag and the drainage tube went under the door skirt. It is amazing how much momentun those doors have. Unfortunately, he was outside the door when he realized what happened and it was too late. As you can imagine, the foley came out, balloon still inflated. After the bleeding subsided, he of course had a UTI. Do you think that Mediare will balk at the charge.
In medial school I was told of a patient at a VA who stepped out of an elevator and left his foley bag in the elevator only to be pulled to the elevator doors as he watched the foley tube go higher and higher until "ouch!" but I figured that the story was an urban myth. Now I am not so sure.
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Interesting post and funny title since I read the post. :) At first I was confused about the bucks traction. OUCH!
Those poor guys!
I've read that it is easier to get a UTI just because you are catheterized. So...that MDCR decision doesn't seem fair.
I had to have a lot of foleys in 2006 and a little in 2007. Luckily, except for the e-coli infection, I didn't get any other ones.
I have wondered about that though because the hospital staff sometimes placed my foley bag on the floor or I walked on hospital floors in socks that then went on my bed sheets. I wasn't wearing undergarments and so wonder if the bacteria crawled up the foley cath.
I realize you may be laughing at that scenario because it couldn't happen but I had heard bacteria can crawl up those tubes. I hope it's not THAT easy...little uninvited critters hitching a ride up to Bajingoland. ;)
It's next to impossible to keep those tubes off of things!
Anyway, I quickly learned to ditch the socks and use slippers or flip flops and fortunately that is not a concern for me now. :)
Enjoyed the post!
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