The Problem
Infectious germs on healthcare surfaces put patients at risk of acquiring healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), with expensive consequences for healthcare systems and potentially deadly consequences for patients.
Dangerous germs like viable bacteria and fungi on supposedly clean surfaces can infect vulnerable patients, which increases:
- Length of stay
- Morbidity rates (days of illness)
- Mortality rates
and can lead to financial penalties, poor quality scores, reputational harm, and unreimbursed costs for health systems.
Hospitals need data-driven, evidence-based insights into their facilities’ germ risk to break the chain of transmission of HAIs
HAI Consequences
Hospitals spend billions each year fighting HAIs because of the critical care costs, quality requirements, and financial ramifications.
HAI-caused Longer Lengths of Stay Represent Significant Opportunity Costs
On average, patients who contract a healthcare-associated infection will have an extra 6.5 days to their stay in the hospital. That means other patients cannot be cared for in that bed, leading to high opportunity costs for the hospital.
HAIs Result in Substantial Unreimbursed Direct Costs
The additional direct cost of an HAI can range from $36,724 -$128,235 per patient, depending on the infection type, with the cost of HAIs greater than the cost of treating community-onset infections
Negative Quality Scores Impact Revenue and Profitability
Poor cleanliness – as rated by patients – results in lower quality scores on important hospital ratings.
Hospitals with high patient survey ratings are more likely to be selected for elective surgery. Of patients considering elective surgery, 68% reported they considered the ratings and reviews of the hospital in addition to the ratings and reviews of their surgeon.
Medicare Penalties for Hospitals with High Infection Rates Reduce Revenue
The Department of Health and Human Services cares about healthcare-associated infections. High healthcare-associated infection rates lead to Medicare reimbursement penalties where 1% of annual Medicare reimbursements are cut for hospitals with the highest infection rates.
The higher a hospital’s Medicare Payor mix, the more intense the penalty. For a hospital with a 70% Medicare payor mix, and a $1B net patient revenue, the predicted annual penalty would be $7M
Healthcare environment cleanliness directly impacts patient risk.
New patients admitted to a room of a discharged patient who had an infection are six times more likely to get that same infection.
Hospital leaders can’t fix what they
can’t see.
for unidentified organic matter on surfaces
A Risk-based Approach is Essential to Systemically Breaking the Chain of Transmission
Historically, the CDC chose not to recommend environmental sampling not because there was not a need for insights, but because there were no technologies that could consistently meet healthcare’s demanding requirements:
- Consistent sampling methods using the right tools applied by trained qualified samplers.
- Industry-leading low detection limits that can find and quantify dangerous germs even in already cleaned healthcare spaces.
- Focused on viable microbes that can actually infect patients.
- Comprehensive identification of germs present without requiring knowing what you are looking for in advance.
- Visually accessible results and evidence-based action recommendations that support multiple learning levels.
CMS Directive
In 2023, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services required healthcare facilities to institute a performance management program for independent contractors based on risk. This can apply to contractors like environmental services providers – and Culturewell’s risk-based evaluations and mitigation strategies can help you meet CMS’s requirements.
It’s time to get excited about the potential impact of a risk-based detection approach that enables trending and continuous improvement.
In today’s healthcare industry, infection prevention responsibilities are spread across lean infection prevention departments, often underfunded and under-resourced, AND Environmental Services (EVS) departments, for which much of the critical cleaning oversight and work is outsourced. Limited resources and a lack of insightful information handicap continuous improvement and the development of proactive preventative approaches.