More than 400 health care industry leaders are meeting in Washington today to figure out how they can put a stop to the hospital-acquired infections that impact about 2 million patients annually, kill as many as 100,000 patients and add as much as $20 billion in additional costs to the health care industry, organizers report.
In an informal poll of Chasing Zero Summit attendees, respondents said that of the 11 preventable conditions that will receive lower or no Medicare reimbursements, the top three most difficult conditions to address are HAIs (hospital acquired infections). In addition, 80 percent of poll respondents indicated that increasing hospital staff awareness, education and training related to infection prevention would have the most significant impact on providers’ abilities to reduce HAIs.
The first ever summit on hospital-acquired infections features a number of prominent speakers, including Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve System from 1987 to 2006; Thomas Valuck, Center for Medicare Management medical officer and senior advisor; Mark McClellan, director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution and Uwe Reinhardt, James Madison Professor of Political Economics at Princeton University.
Too bad it took Medicare’s plan to lower or deny claims for certain preventable conditions beginning next month to get these folks to the table, but I’m glad they’re there.