A broad-based, year-and-a-half old program aimed at improving the safety of in-patient care across California helped save 800 lives in its first year, according to a report from the National Health Foundation, one of the collaborators in the program.
Data from the program, which has more than 160 participating hospitals, suggest that the program called "Patient Safety First…a California Partnership for Health" has already produced more than $11 million in healthcare cost avoidance – money that would have been used to care for patients with sepsis or other hospital-acquired infections.
In all, it is estimated that in California hospitals alone, there are more than 200,000 hospital-acquired infections every year and treating them costs an extra $600 million. Nationwide, a 2009 report from the Centers for Disease Control estimated annual direct costs to hospitals between $28.4 to $33.8 billion annually to treat healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs).
"First year results show that this type of collaboration works," said Eugene Grigsby, MD, president and CEO of the National Health Foundation in a prepared statement. "Lives are being saved, incidents of hospital-acquired infections are being reduced and savings are being achieved. Knowledge gained from the first year of the program will be applied in the second and third year of the initiative to help reach the goal of 'zero' hospital acquired infections by the end of year three."
The three-year, $6 million program, sponsored by the National Health Foundation, regional hospital associations throughout California and Anthem Blue Cross has already achieved significant improvement in care quality. These include:
- 41 percent reduction in ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP);
- 25 percent reduction in central line blood stream infections (CLBSI);
- 24 percent reduction in catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI); and
- a reduction in birth traumas and elective deliveries prior to 39 weeks gestation.
The program, touted as the largest of its kind in the country, seeks to improve communication between hospitals through peer-to-peer sharing of best practices aimed at eliminating patient infections. These learning network uses BEACON - The Bay Area Patient Safety Collaborative and the Southern California Patient Safety Collaborative, the Sepsis Early Goal Directed Therapy (EGDT) and the a March of Dimes toolkit created to help eliminate childbirths before 39 weeks gestational age.
The program looks to achieve many of the same goals as the federal government's Partnership for Patients program, an element of the Affordable Care Act that ups reporting requirements by hospitals and provides both incentives and punitive measures related to hospitals' rates of HAIs and medical errors.
"We're definitely making progress," said Philip Robinson, MD, at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, Calif., in a Los Angeles Times report. "Each one of these infections is a burden to patients, hospitals and the whole healthcare system."
It's these kinds of improvements hospitals will need to continue to make in the coming years as CMS looks to choke off payments from both Medicare and Medicaid for hospitals with high rates of readmissions and those with high rates of medical harm.
Private insurers will also need to get on board, as new regulations under health reform that kick in next year will require their contracting with hospitals to encourage quality improvement efforts, including targeting readmissions and improved patient safety.
Based on its early results, the cooperative efforts among the hospitals in the program appear to have them moving in the right direction.
"The best way to improve patient care is through peer-to-peer learning networks. Practical solutions, commitment, collaboration and accountability are critical in addressing barriers to improvements that accelerate change," said Art Sponseller, president of the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California. "This partnership is enabling hospitals to move from the need to improve, to sustainable organizational change through facilitating the implementation of evidence-based best practices."