Healthcare-Associated Infections

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are illnesses that patients acquire while receiving treatment for medical conditions within hospitals. HAIs are among the most common adverse incidents in healthcare settings and are among the leading causes of detrimental and life threatening health conditions for patients.

The number of patient-acquired infections with the US healthcare system exceeds 1.7 million, with HAIs causing or contributing to approximately 99,000 patient deaths annually (9.3 infections per 1000 patient days or 45 infections per 1000 admissions).

In addition, HAIs create significant economic and sociological consequences for the healthcare system, including direct medical costs, indirect costs due to lost productivity and non-healthcare expenses, and social costs related to debilitating effects and reduced quality of life issues for patients.

HAIs are estimated to impose direct annual costs of $35.7 - $45.0 billion for hospitals and healthcare facilities with combined medical costs of $20,549 - $25,903 per infection occurrence. In addition, recently enacted directives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) now prohibit Medicare and Medicaid from reimbursing hospitals for treating infections and illnesses acquired in healthcare settings, imposing significant new cost burdens on medical establishments to treat HAIs.

HAIs can be effectively reduced through broad-based prevention and control strategies that implement safety programs to reduce infection-acquired risks and improve patient safety. Hand hygiene is one the most important steps that hospitals can take to prevent patient-to-patient and worker-to-patient transmission of HAIs, with the regular use of decontaminated and disinfected examination gloves providing a practical and cost-effective technique to eliminate HAIs in healthcare settings.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that infection control prevention programs instituted within hospitals can potentially save from $5.7 - $31.5 billion annually. Cost estimates even on the low end create considerable savings when compared to aggregate annual inpatient outlays of the most expensive medical procedures, including coronary artery disease ($17.5 billion), heart attacks ($11.8 billion), congestive heart failure ($11.2), stroke ($6.7 billion), diabetes complications ($4.5 billion) and chronic lung disease ($4.2 billion).

Hospital sterilization solution?

A timetable has now been set for a new sterilization unit at Royal Inland Hospital.

Construction of the new and expanded medical device reprocessing (MDR) unit at RIH will get underway this spring, with completion in early 2012.

 The project is expected to cost $10.7-million, with the province picking up 60 per cent of the tab, and Thompson Regional Hospital District funding the rest

There are four main components to the project, including installation of a new, dedicated elevator between the operating rooms and the MDR unit.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, which discards eight tons of trash a day, is working with hospitals across the country to reduce the environmental impact of operating rooms.