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Hospitals to utilize Premier healthcare alliance Web-based automated surveillance solution, Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON) to increase patient safety, reduce costs
DICON, Premier's SafetySurveillor® help providers enhance infection control programs to prevent healthcare-associated infections, optimize antibiotic use
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (January 13, 2010) – In an effort to enhance their infection control programs, three hospitals will leverage the Premier healthcare alliance's SafetySurveillor® automated surveillance solution and the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON).
SafetySurveillor helps hospitals prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and optimize antibiotic use, thereby improving the quality of care and reducing hospital costs.
DICON, a collaboration of the Duke University School of Medicine and 38 community hospitals, provides physicians and nurses educational tools designed to engage and empower hospital personnel to take an active role in reducing HAIs.
New SafetySurveillor and DICON users are: Cooley Dickinson Hospital of Northampton, Mass.; Lafayette General Medical Center of Lafayette, La.; and Mon General Hospital of Morgantown, W.Va. They will use both offerings as a part of the SafetyConnect™ program, Premier's integrated product and service program aimed at addressing the pressing safety and infection-related challenges facing healthcare organizations today.
"Both DICON and Premier are focused on assisting hospitals of all sizes and locations with improving patient outcomes by reducing the rate of HAIs and minimizing their associated costs," said Premier's Scott D. Pope, Pharm.D., SafetySurveillor national director. "DICON's, ready-to-implement, online educational tools and strategies, coupled with SafetySurveillor's ability to facilitate more timely intervention to reduce and prevent infections, provide hospitals a formidable partnership to fight infections."
"DICON has been providing affiliated hospitals with regular and timely information on best practices and best technology as well as educational programs on infection control for more than 12 years," said Dr. Dan Sexton, medical director of DICON.
Hospitals that have used DICON's evidence-based resources have proven reductions in hospital associated infections ranging from 18 percent to 40 percent in such areas as MRSA, bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia.
SafetySurveillor has helped providers reduce infection rates, leading to decreases in mortality and length of stay for infection cases while reducing costs; reduction in urinary tract infections; quicker intervention with appropriate drug therapy for critical patients; and reduced costs through the elimination of unnecessary MRSA screening for ICU patients.
DICON provides training courses for nurses and physicians containing valuable, updated information on evidence-based practices for correctly and safely inserting central venous catheters (CVCs), and for properly accessing, maintaining and removing CVCs. These courses provide hospitals with an economical, practical and effective way to meet important parts of the National Patient Safety Goals. DICON also provides hospitals with prevention initiatives on catheter-associated UTIs, colorectal surgery and clostridium difficile.
SafetyConnect includes a comprehensive offering of data analytics and software, performance improvement support services and collaborative knowledge sharing opportunities to improve ongoing infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship. To enhance the program as well as increase operational and financial performance, Premier partnered with DICON in December 2008.
SafetyConnect also utilizes the Premier Performance Improvement Portal™ service, a library of performance improvement advice and best practices; evidence-based toolkits addressing issues such as antimicrobial stewardship; and resources from the publicly accessible Premier Safety Institute®, which provides safety resources and tools to promote a safe healthcare delivery environment for patients, workers and their communities.
Premier is one of the participants in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) project to electronically submit aggregate level HAI data from hospitals to the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network.
About The Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON)
The Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON), a collaboration of the Duke
University School of Medicine and 38 community hospitals, is focused on
improving infection control programs by compiling data on nosocomial infections
at member hospitals, identifying trends and areas for improvement, and providing
ongoing education and leadership to community providers. DICON helps hospitals
with limited resources develop state-of-the-art infection control programs and
gives institutions with more sophisticated programs access to comparative
statistics to support infection control efforts. The primary focus of DICON is
to improve outcomes for patients – reducing the rate of nosocomial
(healthcare-associated) infections and minimizing the costs associated with
nosocomial and community-acquired infections.
About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals
and 80,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead
the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals,
health systems and other providers, Premier maintains the nation's most
comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and
operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping
deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier has worked with the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National
Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in
Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in
Washington.
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