This February, Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago won the Illinois Health and Hospital Association’s (IHA) “Innovation Challenge: Partners in Progress Award.” In just two years, the facility cut its hospital-acquired infection (HAI) rate by 90% and saved itself $498,000.
Surveyors didn’t always punish healthcare organizations (HCO) if one of their employees was caught not following proper hand hygiene rules. So long as the organization had an otherwise compliant hand hygiene program, they were let off with a (pardon the pun) slap on the wrist.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given hospitals aggressive goals on HAI reduction. By 2020, the department wants CAUTI rates to be cut 50% in acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, and ambulatory surgical centers.
You probably know that CMS doesn’t reimburse for hospital-acquired infections (HAI), including catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), the most common healthcare-associated condition in the U.S.
What you may not know is that CAUTIs cost hospitals far more than most think....
