Sustainability of a program to reduce unnecessary urethral catheter use at a Veterans Affairs hospital.

We assessed the long-term sustainability of a quality improvement intervention to reduce urethral catheter use at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital. During the 8 years after the initial intervention, point-prevalence surveillance showed that urethral catheter use continued to decrease (OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.86-0.97; P = .003) and that appropriateness of catheter use remained unchanged.