News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797
Nationwide survey findings underscore challenges, identify actions in addressing healthcare-associated infections
Hospital professionals acknowledge HAIs as a major patient safety concern; State and federal reporting requirements increase urgency for program enhancements
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (October 18, 2007) – Hospital professionals identified tracking infections across the entire hospital, and the control of resistant organisms, as their top challenges related to managing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), according to a survey of over 800 hospital clinicians involved in infection prevention. (To access survey results, please visit www.premierinc.com/quality-safety/tools-services/safety/news/).
Survey respondents, which include quality, safety, risk management and infection control professionals representing all sizes of hospitals, also identified measuring compliance with hand hygiene and state mandated public reporting as major challenges.
Respondents cited catheter-associated urinary tract infections (49 percent) and pressure ulcers (30 percent) as the most challenging to prevent among infections identified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for non-payment in 2008. Under current payment rules, CMS typically pays hospitals more for treating a patient who develops an infection. CMS announced that, beginning October 1, 2008, it will no longer reimburse hospitals for treating certain preventable conditions, including errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals.
“This is an important assessment of what infection control and quality experts see as their greatest clinical challenges in managing hospital-acquired conditions,” said Premier Safety Institute Vice President Gina Pugliese. “The Premier healthcare alliance will be using this information to continue working with experts in hospitals on steps and best practices to address all causes of infection.”
The survey also found inadequate staffing for infection prevention (47 percent) and funding and budget constraints (34 percent) to be the most significant issues their hospitals face in meeting current infection prevention challenges.
“This finding underscores that healthcare professionals are dealing with a variety of competing demands in working to prevent healthcare-associated infections,” said Blair Childs, Premier’s senior vice president of Public Affairs. “To date, 26 states have public reporting requirements that are placing new demands on hospitals, the new ‘present on admission’ coding system mandated by CMS needs to be implemented, and there are new reporting requirements from government and accreditation organizations. These demands are complicating what is already a significant task of monitoring and preventing HAIs.”
Hospitals taking strides to improve
Hospitals are clearly turning to technology as a way to manage these
demands. More than 22 percent of respondents currently utilize an automated
surveillance system, up from 13 percent in February. An additional 47
percent of respondents are actively considering implementing this
technology, shown to make surveillance more efficient and to free up time
for prevention activities.
“More and more hospitals are starting to use automated surveillance systems to accomplish timely and efficient tracking of HAIs across the entire patient population,” said Dan Peterson, M.D., M.P.H., medical advisor for Premier. “Such systems are also key to meeting the ever increasing regulatory, reporting, and accreditation requirements around infection prevention.”
Respondent quotes:
“Collecting data and reporting HAIs for public reporting takes the time of
infection control professionals who should be working on prevention for the
majority of their time.”
“Once again, legislation has taken nurses further away from actual patient care and safety.”
“We recognize that public reporting may increase surveillance time but could decrease the ability of infection control staff to focus on prevention measures unless additional full time employee support is provided.”
“Focus of the infection control program should be on prevention and not just counting infections.”
About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,400 U.S. hospitals
and nearly 70,000 other healthcare sites working together to achieve high quality,
cost-effective care. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, 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 works 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 offices in San Diego, Philadelphia and
Washington.
http://www.premierinc.com