SPS in the News

Safety saves hospitals moneyLimiting infections, drug errors may have prevented deaths, too

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 02:52 AM By Misti Crane ( mailto:mcrane@dispatch.com )THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Two years of work to slash the rate of avoidable, expensive and potentially deadly hospital complications has paid off.

By focusing on safety - primarily on keeping caregivers' hands clean - central Ohio's adult-care hospitals and all eight Ohio children's hospitals have saved an estimated $12.8million in health-care costs, they said in a report released yesterday.

Behind those costs are people: The adult hospitals estimate that 14 lives were saved, and patients spent 918 fewer days in hospitals.

The children's hospitals figure that 3,583 children avoided harm because of work to control infections and reduce medication errors.

The partnership, called Solutions for Patient Safety, was announced in 2009 after Cardinal Health pledged $1.5million to pay for training and other efforts to improve care. The company's foundation, 25 hospitals, various hospital groups and the Ohio Business Roundtable worked together to reduce avoidable illness and death.

To an outsider, hand-washing in the hospital might seem simple.

"We have known for probably over 100 years that hand-washing is a critical piece to controlling infections, but it is very difficult because medicine is complicated, and there are so many competing things for people to do that something that seems so simple really isn't," said Dianne Radigan, Cardinal's director of community relations.

Caregivers should wash hands thoroughly or "gel in and gel out" with sanitizers every time they enter or leave a patient's room, said Dr. Terry Davis, associate chief medical officer and co-medical director for patient safety at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

"There's tons of data from all across the country that the average compliance is actually around 50 percent," he said.

To meet standards, some workers must wash their hands hundreds of times a day.

Education, close monitoring and the sharing of hand-hygiene data for each unit all were necessary to boost rates, Davis said.

Compliance was hovering at around 75 percent, and only after intense efforts - including installing hundreds more sanitizer dispensers - has it hit 95 percent, he said.

Changes to reduce medication errors have included the purchase of better pumps to administer the drugs and more awareness about double-checking that everything is in order before a patient gets a drug.

Radigan said she is pleased that the partnership has made such a significant difference and commended the group for working together.

The financial help from Cardinal, along with the hospitals' willingness to dedicate resources and time to changing their culture, will continue to make a difference in the welfare of patients, said members of the partnership.

The partnership hopes to share what it has learned with a much-wider audience.

"It's the same with anything," said Tiffany Himmelreich, spokeswoman for the Ohio Hospital Association. "If you pay attention to it, it's going to get better."

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/01/19/safety-saves-hospitals-money.html?sid=101

Gongwer Report 1/18/11

Ohio Business: Patient Safety, Red Roof, Synthetic Fuel, FirstEnergy ...

A patient safety initiative among business leaders and health care providers said Tuesday the effort has led to more than $12.8 million in health care savings, more than 900 fewer patient days spent in the hospital, and nearly 3,600 fewer adverse drug events and infections in children.

Solutions for Patient Safety ( http://www.solutionsforpatientsafety.com/files/SPS_January2011Report.pdf ) began in January 2009, funded with $1.5 million from the Cardinal Health Foundation.

The initiative is a partnership of the foundation, the Ohio Business Roundtable, the Central Ohio Hospital Council, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Children's Hospital Association and 25 hospitals around the state.

Goal of the partnership is to improve quality and reduce costs of health care statewide.

"Cardinal Health is proud to be a founding sponsor and ongoing partner in this groundbreaking initiative that has and will continue to save lives - not only throughout Ohio, but across the nation," said George Barrett, chairman and chief executive officer of Cardinal Health.

"The impressive results of the Solutions for Patient Safety initiative prove that true collaboration among healthcare leaders and clinicians can create meaningful transformation in patient care," he said in a news release.

Ohio's eight children's hospitals and 17 Central Ohio hospitals implemented programs to reduce health care-associated infections and medication errors. They identified data collection protocols and best practice processes that were shared among the institutions, and will also be shared with interested outside organizations in Ohio and nationwide.

The Central Ohio hospitals focused on reducing catheter-associated blood borne infections and reducing health care-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.

Simultaneously, Ohio's children's hospitals worked to reduce surgical site infection rates for cardiac, neurosurgery, and orthopedic procedures and to reduce medication errors.

The report said Central Ohio hospitals accomplished:An 11% reduction in hospital-onset MRSA isolates (incidences of MRSA that occur anywhere on the patient, not just in the bloodstream).

A 42% reduction in MRSA bloodstream infections.

A 37% reduction of catheter-associated blood borne infections.

It said the reductions saved 14 lives, eliminated an estimated 918 additional patient days spent in the hospital, and saved about $7.5 million per year in unnecessary health care costs in Central Ohio hospitals.

The state's children's hospitals achieved a 60% reduction in surgical site infections and a 34.5% reduction in adverse drug events, saving 3,583 children from unnecessary harm and $5.3 million in unnecessary health costs.

Hand-washing, other initiatives add up to big savings for hospitals

Business First - by Carrie Ghose

Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 11:40am EST

Nationwide Children's Hospital is one of several children's hospitals in the state that participated in the Cardinal-backed patient safety program.

A group of Ohio hospitals say they saved $13 million from an 18-month effort to prevent infections and errors.

The 17 Central Ohio hospitals ( http://www.solutionsforpatientsafety.com/ ), including all those in Columbus and surrounding counties from Circleville to Marion, released their Solutions for Patient Safety report Tuesday (PDF here ( http://www.solutionsforpatientsafety.com/files/SPS_January2011Report.pdf )).

A study released in November in the New England Journal of Medicine, looking at data from 10 North Carolina hospitals over five years ending in 2007, concluded that hospitals had made little progress in stopping harm to patients from preventable errors since a landmark 1999 report on the problem by the Institute of Medicine.

"Ohio hospitals have a different story to tell," said the initiative’s report. After setting a goal to "significantly reduce" bloodstream infections from MRSA – methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the staph infection that resists most classes of antibiotics – the adult-care Central Ohio hospitals recorded a drop of 42 percent by June. Those infections can cost up to $26,000 to treat.

The group also achieved a 37 percent reduction – not quite hitting its 50 percent goal – in bloodstream infections associated with a central line, a tube for infusing drugs or withdrawing blood from a patient in a major blood vessel near the heart. The hospitals did meet the goal within intensive care units but raised the bar to reducing such infections hospital-wide, said a statement from Rosalie Weakland, who staffs the Ohio Patient Safety Institute ( http://www.ohiopatientsafety.org/ ), a joint effort of theOhio Hospital Association ( http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/us/oh/columbus/ohio_hospital_association/3219195/ ) and statewide physician trade groups.

"This is a new concept to evaluate central line catheters outside the ICU," she wrote. Individual hospitals achieved the 50 percent hospital-wide reduction, but others had more cancer patients and others with depressed immune systems, exacerbating challenges.

Treating such infections can cost $3,700 to $29,000 per case, and hospitals averaged 25 cases a month, the report said. Since October 2008, Medicare will not pay to treat infections associated with catheters into blood vessels or the urinary tract.

The 17 hospitals are projecting annual savings of about $7.5 million. They’d pursued initiatives as simple as hanging posters to remind workers to wash hands every time they enter or leave a patient’s room, even if wearing gloves. They also reminded workers to clean the connection points for catheters by scrubbing them at least 15 seconds.

The group pledged to continue its work and other hospitals in the state have asked how to repeat the campaign.

Eight children’s hospitals statewide said they saved a combined $5.3 million, beating a goal for surgical site infections with a 60 percent reduction and meeting a goal to prevent medication errors and other negative drug reactions with a 34.5 percent reduction.

Hospital participants said their boards of trustees have upped the time and priority devoted to safety discussions at their meetings.

A $1.5 million grant from Dublin pharmaceutical distributorCardinal Health Inc. ( http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/us/oh/dublin/cardinal_health_inc/2239891/ ) paid for the project, which was also supported by the Ohio Business Roundtable, Ohio Hospital Association, Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and Central Ohio Hospital Council.

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2011/01/18/hand-washing-other-initiatives-add-up.html

OHIO PUBLIC RADIO:

WKSU News: Ohio clean-hands campaign pays off ( http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.wksu.org/news/story/27195&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAEoATAAOABAjazY6QRIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=D5hGnzO8kdM&usg=AFQjCNHfEVcbb0AuyAh-6FUmvKYsZilWyg )

Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen talks with a spokeswoman for the Ohio Hospital Association, Tiffany Himmelreich, about those improved ...www.wksu.org/news/story/27195 ( http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.wksu.org/news/story/27195&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAEoBDAAOABAjazY6QRIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=D5hGnzO8kdM&usg=AFQjCNHfEVcbb0AuyAh-6FUmvKYsZilWyg )

Posted press release:

Ohio Business, Health Care Leaders' Collaboration to Improve ... ( http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp%3FS%3D13860381&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAEoATAAOABA3MDb6QRIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=-EgQoIeYaIA&usg=AFQjCNG7KqRzJW2RsAEu0sBSbsg3oJq5wA )

...the Central Ohio Hospital Council, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Children's Hospital Association and 25 hospitals throughout the state. ...

www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp?S=13860381 ( http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp%3FS%3D13860381&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAEoBDAAOABA3MDb6QRIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=-EgQoIeYaIA&usg=AFQjCNG7KqRzJW2RsAEu0sBSbsg3oJq5wA )

Ohio Business, Health Care Leaders' Collaboration to Improve Pat ... ( http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.biotech-finances.com/fr/cp-122898.html%3Fcp_page_nb%3D9&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAEoATABOAFA3MDb6QRIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=-EgQoIeYaIA&usg=AFQjCNGGi0TLM72ZJ5c6WWKxmRlRIm3q3g )

Tiffany Himmelreich, Ohio Hospital Association, +1-614-221-7614 ext. 128, tiffanyh@ohanet.org. Web site: http://www.solutionsforpatientsafety.com/ ...

www.biotech-finances.com/fr/cp-122898.html?cp_page_nb... ( http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.biotech-finances.com/fr/cp-122898.html%3Fcp_page_nb%3D9&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAEoBDABOAFA3MDb6QRIAVgAYgVlbi1VUw&cd=-EgQoIeYaIA&usg=AFQjCNGGi0TLM72ZJ5c6WWKxmRlRIm3q3g )

Ohio Business, Healthcare Collaboration Improves Patient Safety ... ( http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2011/01/ohio-business-healthcare-collaboration-improves-patient-safety-saves-nearly-13-million-annually.aspx&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAIoATAAOABAlbjb6QRIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=IKs3SHivx4Q&usg=AFQjCNGxvmLmaHzVzaZxYIYY3lezIIL5_A )

...is a partnership among the Cardinal Health Foundation, the Ohio Business Roundtable, the Central Ohio Hospital Council, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Children's Hospital Association and 25 hospitals throughout the state. ...

Infection Control Today Site... - http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/?q=http://www.evilaliv3.org/ ( http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.evilaliv3.org/&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAIoBzAAOABAlbjb6QRIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=IKs3SHivx4Q&usg=AFQjCNHmYo_Znr8L5WZicFSF_a7nzGi8uQ )