Presented by: Thomas C. Cesario, MD, Emeritus Dean and Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, UCI School of Medicine

Each day, one out of 25 patients in the US contracts a hospital-acquired infection (HAI), resulting in billions of wasted dollars and an eye-popping 90,000 deaths annually. A new report published by The Leapfrog Group shows that the percentage of hospitals achieving zero infections has declined dramatically since 2015, indicating many patients are still at risk. 

Delivering quality care has become even more essential for hospitals and health systems since Medicare started issuing penalties for high rates of hospital-acquired conditions—things like falls, ulcers, and infections that could well have been avoided. Statistics from last year underscore this importance: In 2017, Medicare penalized 751 hospitals and health systems for that very reason with a 1% reduction in reimbursement rates for 2018.

HAIs are rising across all five examined in the survey, including central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated UTIs, surgical site infection after colon surgery, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and Clostridium difficile.

Desired Outcomes:

• Examine best practices for eliminating and reducing device-associated infections.
• Recognize the increasing role of resistant organisms in the microbiology of hospital acquired infections.
• Examine best practices for eliminating and reducing device-associated infections.
• Recognize the increasing role of resistant organisms in the microbiology of hospital acquired infections.