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Alegent saves nearly $1.7M after installing infection tracking tool

Alegent Health is the largest not-for-profit, faith-based healthcare system in Nebraska and southwestern Iowa with nine acute care hospitals, more than 100 sites of service, over 1,300 physicians on its medical staff and roughly 9,000 employees. It is ranked first in the country in quality and patient satisfaction according to the Network for Regional healthcare Improvement (NRHI). It is sponsored by Catholic Health Initiatives and Immanuel Health Systems. www.alegent.com

Situation:

The medical center already had embarked on a five-year strategic plan going to 2012 to enhance quality, achieve top level patient safety goals, and improve patient satisfaction while containing costs and improving efficiency.

Solution:

Installed automated infection surveillance technology with SafetySurveillorTM in its five largest hospitals
Centralized, systematized infection prevention program
Required infection prevention specialists to be registered RNs; team members to specialize, such as central alert monitoring

Result:

With no additional staff, much less time spent on paper work; more time for staff education, training; corporate focus allows more efficient coverage
Centralized surveillance is ongoing regardless of emergencies such as the H1N1 pandemic
Real time data allows much better decision making; staff can react more quickly, redeploy assets as necessary
Decreased infection rate has resulted in decreased mortality, decreased length of stay for infection cases and a savings of $1.679 million in six months

"We present a lot of data to board committees. In the past, I would be presenting data that was six months old. It’s really hard to develop action plans for what happened six months ago. Real time data allows us to make much better decisions."

Angela R. Ward, RPh, MSB
Quality & Ancillary Services Executive

“The thing that has changed the most is surveillance never stops. Before, if something like H1N1 happened, something would stop – usually surveillance.”

Emily Hawkins, RN, BSN, MPA
Infection Prevention Coordinator

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