The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded $17 million to fund projects to fight healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs.
Of the $17 million, $8 million will fund a national expansion of the Keystone Project, which within 18 months successfully reduced the rate of central-line blood stream infections in more than 100 Michigan intensive care units and saved 1,500 lives and $200 million. Last year, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded an expansion of this project to 10 states. With additional funding from AHRQ and a private foundation, the Keystone Project is now operating in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The new funding will expand the effort to more hospitals, extend it to other settings in addition to ICUs, and broaden the focus to address other types of infections.
AHRQ, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also identified several high-priority areas to apply the remaining $9 million toward reducing MRSA and other types of HAIs.
HAIs are one of the most common complications of hospital care. Nearly 2 million patients develop HAIs, which contribute to 99,000 deaths each year and $28 billion to $33 billion in healthcare costs. HAIs are caused by different types of bacteria that infect patients being treated in a hospital or healthcare setting for other conditions. The most common HAI-causing bacteria is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The number of MRSA-associated hospital stays has more than tripled since 2000, reaching 368,600 in 2005, according to AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.
Read the HHS press release.
