HHS Report Shows Progress Reducing Hospital-Acquired Conditions
With a focus on improving patient safety, hospital-acquired conditions are down 17 percent since 2010 and saved $12B.
- This week, the Department of Health and Human Services released the results of a new report of hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 through 2013. The results showed significant progress being made to not only make the healthcare system safer for patients, but also avoid unnecessary spending. It was discovered that 1.3 million fewer patients were harmed, 50,000 fewer patients died and an estimated $12 billion in health costs were saved as a result of improved patient safety. This is a 17 percent decline in hospital-acquired conditions over the three-year period.
Much of this effort is born out of provisions in the Affordable Care Act. This includes Medicare payment incentives to improve the quality of care and the HHS Partnership of Patients initiative. The progress can be seen in the numbers from 2013. Last year alone saw 35,000 fewer deaths in hospitals, 800,000 fewer incidents of harm and saved $8 billion.
“Today’s results are welcome news for patients and their families,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “These data represent significant progress in improving the quality of care that patients receive while spending our health care dollars more wisely. HHS will work with partners across the country to continue to build on this progress.”
There are several different forms of Hospital-acquired conditions which include adverse drug events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line associated bloodstream infections, pressure ulcers and surgical site infections. The HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) analyzed the incidence number of avoidable hospital-acquired conditions compared to 2010 rates and used a baseline estimate of deaths and excess healthcare costs that were developed when Partnership for Patients was launched.
According to Rich Umbdenstock, the president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, this is the first time that so many hospitals, clinicians and experts have come together to share in a common goal, which in this case is improving patient care. There is now an “infrastructure of improvement” that will aid hospitals and others in the healthcare field for years to come. He also applauded HHS for having the vision to support these efforts and look forward to continued partnership to keep patients safe and healthy.
Patrick Conway, MD, CMS’ deputy administrators for innovation and quality and chief medical officer said in the release that it has always been important for hospitals to keep patients as safe as possible and these collaborative efforts make it easier to achieve.
“AHRQ has developed the evidence base and many of the tools that hospitals have used to achieve this dramatic decline in patient harms,” said AHRQ director Richard Kronick, Ph.D. “Additionally, AHRQ’s work in measuring adverse events, performed as part of the Partnership for Patients, made it possible to track the rate of change in these harms nationwide and chart the progress being made.”
