Critical Care SmartBrief

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April 27, 2012

Right Care. Right Now.

Critical Care Update

ICU intensivist team leads to better outcomes, lower costs
Lodi Memorial Hospital in California created an intensivist hospitalist team for its ICU and found it led to a 75% drop in catheter-related infections, a 22% decline in length of ICU stay and a 35% decrease in ventilator days, according a study presented at a hospital association meeting. The hospital is saving $1.45 million a year and the intensivist team also is credited with improving patient and family satisfaction and communication among hospital staff. Family Practice News (4/26)

Study: Nursing excellence linked to lower NICU mortality rates
Mortality rates for very low birth weight babies in hospitals that have achieved recognition of nursing excellence were slightly lower than in those without the designation, University of Pennsylvania researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Data show the recognized hospitals also had lower rates of nosocomial infections and severe intraventricular hemorrhage. MedPage Today (free registration) (4/25)

Medicine in the News

Study: Transfusion decisions vary widely in surgery
Doctors' decisions on when to transfuse can vary widely, and the association between transfusion and patient outcomes is inconsistent, according to a Johns Hopkins University study published in the journal Anesthesiology. Doctors should be more aware of transfusion guidelines, and more education is needed, researchers said. The Sun (Baltimore)/Picture of Health blog (4/25)

CMS proposes payment rules for readmissions, quality programs
A CMS proposed rule would pay acute care hospitals 2.3% more for treating Medicare patients if inpatient quality reporting programs are in place. The agency also proposed a calculation for penalties assessed to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates. And CMS said it wants to add surgical site infections from cardiac implantable electronic device and iatrogenic pneumothorax with venous catheterization as conditions subject to hospital-acquired condition payment provisions for 2013. HealthLeaders Media (4/25)

Trends and Technology

Report: N.J. hospitals avoid 14,000 HAIs through faster data
The 21 New Jersey hospitals participating in a program to reduce hospital-acquired infections by speeding up data access and analysis have avoided approximately 14,000 HAIs in six years, saving about $51 million, a report said. Some hospitals use CareFusion's surveillance technology, MedMined, while others have developed their own infection-control programs. NJSpotlight.com (New Jersey) (4/27)

SmartQuote

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."

--John Steinbeck,
American writer

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