Press Release

For Immediate Release | June 2, 2010

Sen. Sherrod Brown, Dr. Provonost, celebrate success today in Cleveland

Contact: Tiffany Himmelreich
(office) 614-221-7614
(after hours) 614-205-6635
e-mail: tiffanyh@ohanet.org

(CLEVELAND, OH) – By working together, 53 Ohio hospitals have drastically reduced central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in intensive care units by 48 percent in just six months, saving lives and health care costs.

Participating hospitals today are discussing results at a mid-project meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel and Conference Center in Cleveland, where U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Peter Provonost, MD, PhD, will help celebrate hospitals’ success to reduce infections and save lives and money.

“Ohio is to be applauded. The hospitals had previously made efforts to improve safety yet they had the courage to admit that they could do better – and they have,” said Provonost. “Through collaboration with the hospital association, 53 courageous Ohio hospitals cut their CLABSI rate in half, achieving the national benchmark of 1/1000 catheter days. Ohio joins a growing group of states that have demonstrated that with leadership, transparency and collaboration, we can save lives and save dollars. This is the kind of health reform Senator Brown called for and that Ohio delivered.”

The participating hospitals’ 80 patient care units in Ohio On The CUSP: Stop BSI, are part of a voluntary national effort to eliminate CLABSI using the Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP). A central line is a catheter that ends in large vessels going into the heart so clinicians can more closely monitor patients and administer medication.
CUSP was developed by Pronovost and others at the Johns Hopkins Quality & Safety Research Group in partnership with the Keystone Center for Patient Safety and Quality of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. The project was piloted in Michigan, where hospitals saved an estimated 1,200 lives per year and reduced costs by $175 million annually.

By the end of the 18-month project, Ohio On The CUSP: Stop BSI aims to:

• replicate the success of the Michigan Keystone/Johns Hopkins project to reduce the mean CLABSI rate within Ohio to less than one per 1,000 catheter days in participating hospitals by implementing the CUSP
• improve safety culture by 50 percent in participating hospitals
• develop a statewide model for implementing and disseminating patient safety initiatives throughout the state

In just six months, the participating Ohio hospitals have already come close to achieving a CLABSI rate of less than one per 1,000 catheter days. In September 2009, the CLABSI rate was 2.40 per 1,000 central line days. By March 2010, that rate had dropped by 48 percent to 1.25. This initial success demonstrates hospitals’ commitment to the implementation of the CUSP model as well as sharing best practices on educating employees, implementing systematic changes in central line care and other process improvements.

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, an estimated 250,000 central-line associated blood stream infections occur in hospitals each year at an estimated cost of $25,000 per episode.

CUSP is administered by the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) of the American Hospital Association and funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Ohio On The CUSP: Stop BSI kicked off in October, 2009 under the leadership of the Ohio Hospital Association’s Quality Institute and the Ohio Patient Safety Institute. Hospital participation is voluntary. Sen. Brown worked on behalf of the Ohio Patient Safety Institute to secure $190,000 in additional federal funding for this initiative. Ohio is the only state in which a U.S. senator secured funding beyond AHRQ.

A list of participating hospitals is available on OHA’s Web site.

About OPSI
The Ohio Patient Safety Institute (OPSI) is an organization dedicated to improving patient safety in Ohio. The Institute is a subsidiary of the Ohio Health Council, which was founded by the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, and the Ohio Osteopathic Association. Through this collaboration and common effort, OPSI has the ability to work with over 180 hospitals and 9,000 physicians in Ohio to improve patient safety for all Ohioans. Visit OPSI at www.ohiopatientsafety.org.

About OHA
The Ohio Hospital Association was established in 1915 and currently represents 169 hospitals and 18 health systems throughout Ohio. OHA is a membership-driven organization that provides proactive leadership to create an environment in which Ohio hospitals are successful in serving their communities. Visit OHA’s Web site at www.ohanet.org. Follow OHA on Twitter at http://twitter.com/OhioHospitals.

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