Reusing Catheters in Home Care? No Way!

[DutchgirlRN]

My SIL is an LPN who does private duty. Her patient is a quad and has to be straight cathed Q 6 hours. She claims that the patients case manager came by to make sure they were re-using the catheter. She said there was a doctors order to do so. My SIL said they are to soak the red rubber catheter in 1/2 H20 and 1/2 vinegar after use, rinse, dry and re-use! I have never heard of this. She said she did learn in LPN school that some home patients do

re-use the catheters and that it's okay to do so in home care. I said "I would absolutely not do it". I said the insurance company will say whatever in order to save a buck. What do you think?

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I remember keeping straight catheters in Rubbermaid containers filled with Betadine in resident rooms back when I started out as an LTC nurse.........and that was less than a decade ago! First you rinsed the catheter with warm water, did the procedure, then washed it with soap and water and put it back in the Betadine. We also changed the catheter once a week and the solution every other day.

I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

I've about known this ever since we were using glass catheters!

A person is colonized with his own bacteria which he shares with his well washed and stored catheter.

[HHcricket]

Cleaning and reusing catheters has been a common thing in the lay world since the 50's when I started in nursing and I'm sure long before then.

[Trekfan]

I'm a nursing student right now and also a cancer survivor who due to some long term effects of my tumor, i have to straight cath myself.. and what you've heard is true unfortunately. I don't use the red rubber catheters but it's the same princible. Basically it's bc of the insurance companies. It's a HUGE problem that not only outrages patients but alot of health care workers. Like for me.. before I got medicaid and medicare.. my insurance company was only paying for 4 catheters a month.. meaning that I was suppose to use one a week at most.. being left to "clean" them. As a result.. i had UTI after UTI for years. Now as we all know.. this can lead to drug resistance.. and if ur body becomes resistant to but so many antibiotics.. you're going to end up in a hospital bc of an UTI so you can get IV antibiotics.. which will end up with the insurance company paying for alot more, why they don't get this and do something about it i have no idea. The thing that helped me.. was to be close with the doctors and nurses that treated me on a regular basis, who hooked me up with boxes of catheters to help the problem. I had letters written to my insurance company and all sorts of things, and nothing worked. If i wanted more than what they were willing to pay for.. i had to pay for each catheter individually. I now have gotton on a good insurance plan and by chance found a wonderful company who files my insurance for me and gets my catheters to me once a month, never late, and who call me every single month to make sure i'm ok and make sure to let me know if i need ANYTHING there is a nurse on call for me to ask any questions i have.. they are honestly the nicest company i've ever dealt with.. anyways..I get a whole box of catheters (30) per month so I can use one a day and has cut down on the amount of UTI's i have.. even tho it hasn't gotten rid of them completely. Anywho, I hope I didn't ramble on and caught the interest of a few people. It really seems like something small but is a HUGE problem to those who have to live with these things on a daily basis.. and us as nurses should be aware of these problems and try to help the patient as much as possible seeing as not many people are willing to unfortunately.

~Heather

** HELP ** Please tell me the name of the company you use they sound grate and just what I need !! I am veary new to doing self-caths and my doc. office was not veary helpfull in giving me info also if anyone knows of any good web sites / nurse lines where I can go to ask questions that would be grate .