The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that roughly two million health care-associated infections occur each year in U.S. hospitals. These infections result in approximately $40 billion in excess health care costs and as many as 99,000 deaths. More people die as the result of health care-associated infections (HAIs) than from breast cancer, AIDS, and auto accidents combined. However there is good news: most HAIs are preventable.
In 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the HHS Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections. As part of this action plan, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) increased support and scope of a project funded in 2008 to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and funded a second initiative to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). Both of these projects, On the CUSP: Stop BSI and On the CUSP: Stop CAUTI, apply the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) to improve the culture of patient safety and implement evidence-based best practices to reduce the risk of infections.
The goals for this national project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to implement CUSP include:
- Improve Patient Safety Culture
- Reduce the Mean Rates of CLABSI by 25%
- Reduce the Mean Rates of CAUTI by 25%