What Are Hospital Infections Costing You?

“Hospital infections kill more Americans each year than AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents combined.”

The Committee to Reduce Infection Death (RID)

“Starting in 2009, Medicare, the US government's health insurance program for elderly and disabled Americans, will not cover the costs of "preventable" conditions, mistakes and infections resulting from a hospital stay. Hospitals will be barred from billing patients for what Medicare doesn’t pay.”

Medical News Today

Per RID statistics, hospital infections:

Kill 103,000 people each year in the US

Cost an average of $15,275 per infection to treat

A new study based on all the hospital infections reported in Pennsylvania in 2005 dramatizes this enormous economic burden. The average charge for patients who developed an infection ($173,206) was nearly four times as high as for patients admitted with the same diagnosis and severity of illness who did not contract an infection ($44,367). The 11,688 infections reported added over two billion dollars in hospital charges that year. That's in one state alone!

Staphylococcus aureus infections are especially costly. According to a recent nationwide study, patients with Staph infections incur hospital costs that amount to more than triple the average hospital costs of other patients.

Not worried because your hospital's infection rate is well below the national average? Even hospitals with a below-average infection rate lose money on infections. A recent survey of 55 hospitals, where the infection rate averaged only 4.09% —well below the national average —showed that treating these infections wiped out inpatient operating profits.

Add over $30 billion a year to healthcare costs

Are almost always preventable

A simple solution of thorough cleaning with ordinary detergents and water–curbs the spread of deadly bacteria. When researchers at a Major University Medical Center trained the staff to soak surfaces with detergent rather than merely spraying and wiping, and to clean commonly overlooked objects such as telephones, remote controls, and faucets, the spread of VRE to patients was reduced by two thirds.

Even the cash–strapped British National Health Service recognizes that intensive cleaning is a bargain compared with the cost of treating infections. By nearly doubling cleaning staff hours on one ward, a hospital in Dorchester reduced the spread of MRSA by 90 percent, saving 3 1/2 times the added cleaning costs.

Hospital industry groups are making infection prevention a priority. Even the Joint Commission, which is responsible for accrediting most of the nation’s hospitals, recently announced that it will make hospital hygiene and infection prevention a focus of future inspections.

These are major changes that will save lives. Hospitals are facing tough times, trying to balance both effective and affordable healthcare. There is an ever-increasing need for hospital administration, medical personnel and support staff to identify ways to lessen the rising costs, increase the quality of care, cope with expanding regulations, maximize available resources, and discover and implement new technologies and programs.

Quality Housekeeping Technologies is positioned to provide the assistance you need.

	We can serve as your agent of change and infuse new technologies and processes into custodial services for your healthcare facility. One way to accomplish this is to conduct a business case analysis of your current environmental operations and design a cost-effective plan that will maximize your quality of service.

	Through our approach, we:

	Audit your existing service levels and identify strengths and weaknesses in your current processes.
	Collect the data necessary for you to make informed decisions about altering current practices, policies and procedures, allowing you to provide the level of service required.
	Identify structural challenges and recommend improvements that can effect hospital-acquired infections.
	Instantly benchmark your audit scores against other healthcare facilities so you know how your facility compares to similar facilities.
	Develop a Total Quality Management System for internal use.
	Conduct follow-up audits to provide a continuous independent measurement of service performance.