Case Study

concerns that have been raised have been addressed and acted upon in collaboration with the Medline urology team in as close to real time as possible.”

To guide appropriate product use, the team developed a decision tree, which was embedded into Epic, YNHHS’ s electronic health record system. This helped standardize ordering and promote compliance with clinical protocols. One key change they had to make to the ordering was to reflect that Versette isn’ t just a female external catheter, that it’ s also appropriate for males with retracted anatomy.

The Medline team had an existing decision tree— when to use an external catheter— that the YNHHS team was able to customize.“ After infection prevention and skin health reviewed it, we made some tweaks,” Katz explains.“ It’ s still early on, but having that decision tree has been impactful.” One unexpected outcome, says Katz:“ One of the units told us they weren’ t using as many Versette devices as they did the other product.” When asked why, Katz was told it was because they were following the decision tree.

Continuous improvement and ongoing communication Post-implementation, the team

“ You need to build your relationships because everything is built on that.”

— Jodi Katz MSHA, BSN, RN, CNML, CVAHP, value analysis nurse at Yale New Haven Health

sustained momentum with regular office hours, ongoing education and plans for quarterly benchmarking.“ We’ re working now to set up a regular cadence calendar of education, to keep on top of it,” Katz says.

The initiative also laid the groundwork for future studies on CAUTI reduction and proper utilization of external catheters.“ I’ m going to be doing a longer-term study to see if I have a reduction in CAUTI,” Matarazzo-Joy explains.

“ There’ s been constant communication on every level,” Strazdon notes.“ Now we’ re talking about doing a class for the patient care technicians.”

Blueprint for success“ One of the biggest keys to success when you’ re doing a conversion is following a consistent process and making sure you don’ t skip steps or go around people,” Peterson says.

In a nutshell, Katz agrees:“ We had the plan, we followed the plan, we enacted the plan, we had success.” But that success was not just about product performance— it was about partnership, planning and presence.

Working side by side, the Yale New Haven Health and Medline clinical teams built a strong relationship that allowed the plan to run smoothly. And when there were bumps, the teams approached them together.“ I feel very blessed and fortunate that I ' ve been able to work with a team that was so open and so communicative and so honest,” Strazdon says of her YNHHS counterparts.

The feeling was mutual.“ I

Previous product pre-trial benchmarking survey 2

Of 134 staff members who filled out the survey:

Versette post-trial survey 2

Completed surveys

Acceptance rate

Reporting minimal to no leakage

cannot speak highly enough about the collaboration,” says Katz.“ Medline has truly been an industry partner with me as a value analysis professional. You need to build your relationships because everything is built on that.”

Strazdon credits Medline’ s dedication to achieving a smooth transition to the whole team: product support specialists, clinical support and boots on the ground.“ I’ m forever grateful for the amount of resources that are available to us at Medline, especially for an implementation of this size.”

Another positive outcome was that staff have seen that their opinions are valued.“ We ' ve been telling people we can ' t fix something if we don ' t know about it. So they ' re getting more comfortable bringing up issues,” Peterson comments.

Bottom line, says Matarazzo-Joy:“ They were so excited to have that product back.” With the partnership in place, the YNHHS team plans to use their experience as a model for future change management.“ It really paved the path, so we’ ve marched this through as the standard now,” Katz says.

Yale New Haven Health’ s transition to Versette catheters, not made with natural rubber latex, demonstrates how benchmarking, education and a strong partnership can drive successful and sustainable clinical change. The collaborative approach— marked by transparent communication, hands-on support and ongoing education— created a blueprint for future initiatives.

References 1 Wu, M., McIntosh, J., & Liu, J.( 2016). Current prevalence rate of latex allergy: Why it remains a problem?. Journal of occupational health, 58( 2), 138 – 144. https:// doi. org / 10.1539 / joh. 15-0275-RA 2 Yale New Haven Versette Trial Executive Summary, 2025; Yale New Haven External Catheter Pre- Implementation Benchmark, 2025

12 Healthy Skin Issue 16 / Fall 2025