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Hospital Infections Targeted
CONTACT: Brian Dowling
Product Manger - Critical Care Products
Vital Signs
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Article Title: “Hospital Infections Targeted”
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Date: October 18, 2005
This article appeared in the business section of the Philadelphia Inquirer and covers the new patient –safety initiative launched by Philadelphia area hospitals in an effort to minimize medical mistakes and improve quality from the factory floor to the surgical suite. Partially funded by Independence Blue Cross and the non-profit ECRI the initiative includes 68 hospitals in SE Pennsylvania and is to last 3 years and cost $2.5 million.
Using a quality improvement method know as “failure mode and effects analysis” each hospital will analyze each step in the care process for its level of risk and develop methods to reduce those risks. The end goal is to pool all data and arrive at a set of “best practices” that can then be adapted to individual hospitals. If successful, the collaboration should be able to reduce the cost of healthcare.
Article Quotations:
- Our goal is reduce HAI’s in the 4 highest risk areas; 1.urinary catheters, 2. ventilators, 3. surgical wound sites, 4. central lines
- The ultimate goal is to establish “best practices”
- “this is NOT an initiative to reduce costs but rather improve quality and safety”
- In July 2000 the PHC4 reported that HAI’s cost PA taxpayers an additional $350 million in the year 2004
- In the same year 1793 died of HAI’s, 1510 more than was expected
- The two most common “problem areas” were 1. medication errors and 2. surgical site infections
- In the Pittsburgh initiative, formed in 1997 and comprised of four health insurers, 44 hospitals and dozens of businesses reported a 63% decrease in HAI’s in bloodstream infections associated with the use of intravenous catheters
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