Win-Win: Local hospitals reduce costs by improving patient carePosted by [url=http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/about.html]priede[/url] May 13, 2009 05:02AM
Dick Blume/The Post Standard TODD OLRICH, a clinical nurse specialist at Crouse Hospital, places a catheter reminder sticker on a patient's records.
With health costs skyrocketing and the nation struggling to find ways to provide affordable care to all, two Syracuse hospitals are making a rather remarkable discovery: Improving patient care can save big money. It turns out that keeping a relentless focus on each patient to prevent in-hospital complications not only saves patients untold suffering, it also slashes the cost of care.
Some of the savings are startling. The average cost of a major digestive surgery is about $25,000. But if the patient develops severe bedsores, the extra nursing, medication and time in the hospital can more than quadruple that cost -- to nearly $110,000. Other complications -- urinary tract infections, pneumonia, even stroke -- can add enormously to health care costs.
Obviously, hospitals should already be doing everything they can to prevent complications. But hospitals are enormously busy, complex and sometimes understaffed institutions. Most lack data on how their rates of preventable complications stack up against other hospitals around the country.
Now, our local hospitals have that information. Syracuse is one of 10 sites nationwide piloting 3M software that gives hospitals access to the comparison data and helps them lower their numbers. Crouse and St. Joseph's hospitals got involved in the program early on and already are seeing savings. University and Community General have been slower to respond, but appear to be working toward full participation.
Some of the prevention techniques are simple -- putting a reminder sticker on a chart noting that a patient has a catheter that might need changing or discontinuing, for example. Or turning patients more frequently or providing them with special mattresses to prevent bedsores. Or swabbing rooms with bleach to prevent the spread of illnesses.
Those measures aren't necessarily new, and hospitals have been reasonably successful in keeping complications low. Syracuse's four hospitals admit about 66,000 patients a year, and only a small percentage -- ranging from about 2 percent to 6 percent, according to the Hospital Executive Council -- develop complications. But instituting protocols and checklists, and having a way to track a hospital's progress toward reducing its numbers, creates a higher level of focus and care that can push the numbers substantially lower.
It is sobering that hospital executives tend to give more urgency to such complications once they see how much money can be saved. But, again, hospitals are complex institutions, and things that are measured -- in particular the bottom line -- are the things that get the most attention.
In his push for more affordable and accessible health care, President Barack Obama stresses the importance of lowering costs while improving care. The pilot program in Syracuse shows one way that can be done. Early results show that Crouse and St. Joseph's could save a combined $850,000 a year by preventing painful and debilitating complications in their patients.
Those two hospitals deserve credit for quickly embracing this win-win program. It's time for University and Community General to jump on board, too.
Categories: Editorial
Commentsloadnlock says...Sean;
Congrats on dumping your last credit card.
I began the same get rid of the credit cards journey several years ago. At that time I had about a dozen although most had zero balances. So gradually I just cut them up, heaved them in the trash, and never looked back. Now I'm down to just one card. The payments are managable and I NEVER use it for daily purchases.
The general rule I've adhered to is never use a credit card to pay forsomething that will be used up before the bill arrivess (read gasoline, food).
Maybe you should offer your credit story to Gov. Dave P. If any state could benefit from eliminating it's systemic debt, it's NY
Posted on 05/13/09 at 10:32AM
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发表于 2009-5-16 06:08:10
