Besançon Hospital is a university-affiliated hospital with 1205 acute-care beds in 59 departments (35 medical departments, 21 surgical departments and three intensive care units). Approximately 50 000 admissions and 350 000 patient-days are recorded per year.
Five departments with high levels of urinary catheterization activity were selected for this study: neurosurgery, cardiovascular surgery, orthopaedic surgery, neurology and geriatrics. All patients hospitalized and undergoing non-chronic urinary catheterization in these departments were included. Patients with urinary catheter on admission were excluded. Data were collected from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2005.