South Texas hospitals are taking serious looks at ways to prevent complications from healthcare conditions.
One in every 20 patients has an infection related to their hospital care, says U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
One in seven Medicare beneficiaries is harmed during their hospital care, costing the government about $4.4 billion annually.
Nearly one in five Medicare patients discharged from a hospital have to be readmitted within 30 days. This affects 2.6 million seniors and costs over $26 billion each year.
Patients are worried when they learn about continued layoffs at area hospitals.
Even hospital employees are showing signs of wear and stress from administration attempts to cut costs.
Evelyn (not her real name) has worked at a San Antonio hospital for over 11 years and has a reputation among her peers as being a productive employee who never complains.
“Lately, I just have not been able to keep up,” Evelyn, agreed to meet with the Examiner as long as the hospital or her name was not revealed. “My workload has increased far more than any one person is capable of handling, and I know it is compromising health care.”
Hospitals across the country are developing new resources and support to make health care safer, but less costly. A program called Hospital Engagement Networks (HEN) has began sharing proven solutions and best practices that reduce or eliminate harm to patients.
HHS says these networks “provide a wide array of initiatives and activities to improve patient safety.
“They will be required to conduct intensive training programs to teach and support hospitals in making patient care safer, provide technical assistance to hospitals so that hospitals can achieve quality measurement goals, and establish and implement a system to track and monitor hospital progress in meeting quality improvement goals.”
In December, 2011, HHS selected 26 HENs across the U.S. and charged them with preventing more than 60,000 deaths and 18 million from “hospital-acquired conditions” from 2012-3014.
Recent HHS research admits the most widely quoted estimate of preventable patient harm, 44,000 to 98,000 deaths and one million injuries annually, is probably low. Their most recent research found a much higher rate of harm to patients.
"There is no doubt, the training, information sharing and process improvements have helped," Evelyn observed. "But I am most concerned about this all be diluted with less people to do the jobs."
“We are told this is the most comprehensive safety effort ever attempted for patient safety,” said Evelyn. “I just hope they take a serious look at having the appropriate amount of quality staffing.”
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