A new partnership between Birmingham, Ala.-based Proventix Systems, Alabama Power and 27 hospitals across Alabama is helping to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), improving patient outcomes and contributing to bringing down healthcare costs.
The state’s Putting Power into Healthcare Initiative (PPHI), which started as a seven-month study in February 2010 at Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, focuses on increasing hand hygiene in hospitals, which many studies show can help cut down on HAIs. HAIs can complicate a medical condition, extend the time a patient stays in the hospital and boost the costs of healthcare and health insurance. The initiative has now expanded to 27 hospitals around the state, which represents over half of all the hospital admissions in the state.
The hospitals involved with PPHI have installed Proventix’s nGage System, which uses active communication units and radio-frequency badges tied to a data and compliance monitoring system. By using nGage, hospitals measure when and how often their employees and healthcare professionals wash their hands. Participating hospitals have installed the system in patient rooms and other places where patient care is provided.
“This initiative is both economically and clinically relevant for hospitals. One in 20 patients gets a HAI, and hand hygiene is the best way to prevent the spread of infections. Some studies show hand hygiene contributes up to 50 percent of infections that occur,” said Proventix CEO Harvey Nix. “The reality is one in 20 patients who get an HAI can contribute up to 70 to 90 percent of a hospital’s net losses. The losses partially come from not being reimbursed for the extra hospital care. Typically, with an infection, it lengthens a stay up to eight days, and costs up to $16 to $20,000 per incident. Some single incidents can cost over $50,000, like a blood stream infection.”
Alabama Power’s spokesperson, Michael Szajderman, said his company, one of the largest employers in the state, was interested in teaming up with Proventix and area hospitals because so many healthcare expenses are avoidable. “Keep our employees healthier,” he said, “and we will more than get it back in the end.”
Szajderman said the pilot program at Princeton Baptist Medical Center was so successful that after the seven-month program, Alabama Power and Proventix reached out to other hospitals in the state with a six-month grant program.
Richard Embrey, chief medical officer at Princeton Baptist Medical Center, said the results of the initiative have “been phenomenal.”
Embrey said the medical center saw a 22 percent reduction of patient infections in seven months in just two of its units where the system was installed. This translated into 159 fewer patient days and estimated health cost savings of more than $133,000.
“We try to be very innovative here. It’s one of our core values – finding unique solutions to old problems. We knew hand-washing compliance is a huge problem and making sure it’s always done isn’t always easy to monitor. The idea of having something so accurate really attracted us to this system,” Embrey said. “Compliance went up seven fold. The technology allows caregivers to know they’ve washed their hands before they touch a patient. It tracks when the water is turned on and the soap dispenser is used. It helps people develop new habits and behaviors. Once the technology is in all of our units, we could save millions.”
“This initiative could be significant beyond Alabama,” said Szajderman. “If the program really shows great results, hopefully this can be a great model for other places."