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Hospitals seeks to eliminate preventable infections, reduce cost of care
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In an effort to reduce avoidable deaths, patient harm and health care
costs, all 65 acute care hospitals in South Carolina have agreed to
work toward eliminating preventable health-care-associated infections
(HAIs) to improve patient care and safely reduce associated
costs.
Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC), the South Carolina Hospital
Association (SCHA) and the Premier Healthcare Alliance on Feb. 4
announced the formation of the South Carolina Healthcare Quality Trust
(SC HQT), a unique and voluntary partnership that could become a
national model.
The state’s largest research universities and health care systems are
working through the SC HQT and HSSC to utilize evidence based best
practices, research and development to establish and share new methods
to eliminate preventable infections.
Primary partners include MUSC and MUHA, Clemson University, the
University of South Carolina; the systems of Greenville Hospital,
Palmetto Health and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare.
“We all know someone whose life has been altered, sometimes
permanently, by a preventable health-care-associated infection,” said
Jay Moskowitz, HSSC president and CEO. “Through this collaborative, we
will use our state’s best researchers to determine the causes of
specific infections. We will test the solutions in our state’s four
largest health systems, which today treat about 30 percent of all
patients; and share the best practices, products and services that
result with all 65 of the state’s acute care hospitals. We believe this
approach has the potential to make our state’s hospitals safer for
patients, families and employees, while making our state a national
model for healthcare quality.” The SC HQT also plans to
address both acute and chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, and
heart and vascular diseases, in the future.
“Health-care-associated infections are a serious threat to patient
health and safety in all hospitals, and they add significantly to the
cost of care. South Carolina hospitals are not immune to this problem,
but they are working on all fronts to identify and eradicate
preventable infections,” said Thornton Kirby, SCHA president. “We
anticipate that this groundbreaking partnership between SCHA, Health
Sciences of South Carolina and Premier will bring the latest research
and best practice information to every hospital bed in the state.”
In 2006, SCHA worked with legislators on the state’s Hospital
Infections Disclosure Act, which requires hospitals to report certain
categories of infections to the S.C. Department of Health and
Environmental Control. Last year DHEC published preliminary numbers on
its Web site. The association also has a public Web site, http://www.myschospital.org that provides validated hospital-specific performance data.
Using technology, sharing information
A special information-sharing portal will be developed for all South
Carolina hospitals to research the causes of HAIs, and to identify and
promote existing and new processes for prevention. Hospitals will be
able to track their improvement against state and national benchmarks
via the Performance Improvement Portal, Premier’s knowledge exchange
community of more than 1,500 health care experts nationwide, to develop
and share best practices and knowledge on effective strategies for
combating HAIs.
“Through the SC HQT, we are developing an approach to eliminating HAIs
using evidence-based best practices,” said Premier CEO Susan DeVore.
“By measuring performance against state and national benchmarks, the SC
HQT will work to become a national model for health care quality
improvement that every state can utilize to efficiently focus resources
and improve the health of their communities.”
Friday, Feb. 27, 2009
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