Bronson Succeeds at Preventing Hospital-Acquired Infections

June 10, 2008

Bronson Methodist Hospital has been recognized for providing excellent care to patients in its intensive care units (ICU) by VHA Inc., a national healthcare alliance. The 2008 VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence honors organizations that have distinguished themselves from other VHA member hospitals by meeting or exceeding national performance standards.

“Critically ill patients in the ICU are at high risk for developing serious complications, such as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP),” said Gabriel Pedraza, M.D., Bronson medical director, adult critical care service. “These types of infections often decrease survival rates, lengthen hospital stays and are very costly to the healthcare system. Through teamwork and implementing an evidence-based multidisciplinary approach, we were able to attain outcomes that were once thought as unachievable.”

Bronson is one of 49 VHA-member hospitals to be recognized for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients in the intensive care unit. VHA serves more than 1,400 not-for-profit hospitals nationwide. To receive the award in this category, Bronson had to demonstrate its ICUs applied specific processes to eliminate or reduce the risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia. The standard for eliminating infections was zero cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia over at least a continuous 12-month time period, which Bronson exceeded by not having one for 31 straight months.

“Intensive care patients are extremely vulnerable to infections,” said Trent Haywood, M.D., J.D., chief medical officer at VHA. “Bronson has achieved what was once thought of as unattainable, zero cases of VAP over a long period of time. That’s quite an accomplishment for a hospital that is treating increasingly more critical patients.”

“Our participation with organizations like VHA, Michigan Hospital Association’s Keystone Collaborative, and others allows us to measure our performance and share our experiences with other top hospitals in the nation,” said Cheryl Knapp, Bronson vice president of quality and safety. “We are honored that our improvements have been recognized nationally, but we will not rest on our laurels. We’ll continue to strive not only for zero ventilator associated infections, but minimize the risk for all hospital acquired infections in all of our intensive care units.”

Each year two million people – one out of every 20 who obtain care at an American hospital – contract an infection during their care; 90,000 of them die. On average, hospital acquired infections add more than $15,000 to a patient’s hospital bill, amounting to more than $30 billion a year wasted on avoidable costs.

In addition to this recognition, VHA has also recognized Bronson with its 2007 Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence based on performance at the 90 percent or above level on clinical core measures in surgical complications and infection prevention, as well as its 2005 & 2007 Leadership Award for operational excellence.