​“We hope to reach out to nursing homes and other dialysis centres so that the project can be shared to benefit more patients.

Maintaining hand hygiene and keeping dressings clean may sound basic, but they are paramount to patient safety at the National Kidney Foundation. When not observed properly, serious consequences such as infection can occur, leading to complications and hospital admission for the patient.

To improve patient safety and reduce occurrence of such infections, eight of us nurses did a study at five of our dialysis centres to identify the gaps in catheter related protocols.

The findings led us to incorporate the catheter care bundle as part of our standard operating procedure. A dialysis catheter workshop was developed to train staff in carrying out the new procedure. Regular auditing of the catheter bundle was also put in place to support review and continuous improvement.

For patients, we produced an education brochure, a catheter care video, as well as a permanent catheter “E” kit that comprises sterile gauze, catheter dressing and plastic forceps for emergency use. Patients are taught how to change their dressing safely, at their own convenience.

Since embarking on the project, we significantly reduced central line-related infection rate from 7.14 per 100 patient months in November 2014 to 1.23 in April 2015.

In the coming months, we hope to reach out to nursing homes and other dialysis centres so that the success of the project can be shared to benefit more patients.”

Nursing Infection Control Taskforce
National Kidney Foundation
Winner of the Best Team - Clinical Practice Improvement (ILTC) Award, Singapore Health Quality Service Awards 2017