Infection Prevention Imperatives for the New Year

The Economics of Infection Prevention

Making the business case for infection prevention and control to hospital administrators and other stakeholders will remain critical for infection preventionists for years to come. Understanding the economics of healthcare as it relates to overall performance improvement is essential, Warye emphasizes. “I think you will see in 2009 and beyond that infection prevention will become far more involved in performance improvement initiatives. It’s a big part of the natural evolution of the role, that by using surveillance data and educational resources, infection preventionists can help manage performance improvement initiatives in collaboration with the healthcare institution’s quality officer.”

Warye adds that the CMS regulations are a new impetus for doing the right thing – eliminating all preventable infections – in the first place. “I think it’s certainly a wakeup call for clinical and administrative leaders that infection prevention is a priority,” she says. “Anyone for whom this was not a top priority in the past likely has changed his or her mind. Money talks and the CMS rules have captured the attention of healthcare institution leaders. As far as the impact of the rules, I think it’s too early to tell. Many institutions were not putting programs into place prior to the new regulations, even though they knew they were coming. Only after that first notice that preventable infections will not be reimbursed did many institutions begin to address HAIs in a different way. I think it will empower infection prevention across the nation, and focus the entire institution on infection prevention measures in an entirely new way.”

Warye says she is hopeful that hospital CEOs’ preoccupation with the new CMS regulations will help boost funding and resourcing of infection prevention and control programs. “It’s imperative that hospitals properly resource their infection prevention programs. Now that Medicare reimbursement will not be there to offset any portion of that cost, I think administrators will take a closer look at infection prevention programs and realize interventions that reduce those infections cost just pennies on the dollar compared to what the treatment for those infections cost.” Warye continues, “From a purely economic standpoint, if all you were concerned about is the economics of the institution, it would be a very prudent decision to better resource the infection prevention department because that’s going to improve your bottom line overall. Now is the time to invest in infection prevention and probably more so in poor economic times because you are not going to have other revenue streams. Changing that mindset that infections were revenue-neutral or revenue-positive has been very difficult – more than I ever thought – and it’s not accurate in terms of emerging data. Yet administrators still cling to that belief, which prevents them from appreciating the value of infection prevention and how it improves the bottom line and the financial viability and sustainability of the institution. Where else are you going to find a couple million dollars you could add to the hospital’s bottom line? The CMS regulations are creating tremendous discomfort but at the end of the day, if they force a shift in that mindset away from controlling infections to preventing infections, then that will have been a tremendous contribution to patient outcomes and the facility’s sustainability.”