According to a new report from the American Hospital Association (AHA), hospital performance on key patient safety and quality metrics is better in the first quarter of 2024 than it was prior to COVID-19. The following provides more details arising from the report.
Report Parameters
Team members of Vizient, Inc. provided the data and analysis on behalf of the AHA. Their database contains information on more than 1,300 hospitals, submitted within 30 days of the end of each quarter. This provides real-time feedback to the participating hospitals and allows them to benchmark their performance against that of other general acute care hospitals. The study was based on a review of data from the following hospital types:
Key Findings
Better Though Sicker. Indeed, it was determined that hospitals made these safety improvements “while caring for patients with more significant healthcare needs.” Despite being sicker and more complex, hospitalized patients in the first quarter of 2024 were on average over 20 percent more likely to survive than expected given the severity of their illnesses compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. Now, that kind of improvement should be celebrated by cracking open a bottle of bubbly (sparkling water for those who don’t imbibe)!
The data revealed that, compared to 2019, patient acuity has increased three percent, indicating that hospitals are now serving patients with “a wide spectrum of more severe conditions or more complicated illnesses.” Despite these trends, the analysis shows that key patient outcomes have improved. “In short, at the same time hospitals are seeing more patients, they also are seeing higher acuity patients who require more complex care.”
Diminishing Mortality Risk. When observed mortality is consistently lower than expected, i.e., when risk of mortality is less than 1.0, it indicates that more people are surviving conditions that otherwise would be expected to be fatal, suggesting ongoing continuous improvement in patient care and treatment. The Vizient analysis shows that, since 2022, hospital mortality rates have been better than expected and that the difference between expected and observed continues to grow.
In the first quarter of 2024, risk of mortality reached 0.78 or nearly 22 percent lower than its baseline of 1.0 in 2019. This improved safety factor means that some 200,000 Americans hospitalized between April 2023 and March 2024 survived episodes of care they would not have in 2019. Again, this is cause for great celebration and some well-deserved pats on the back!
Decreasing Infections. During the pandemic, hospitals experienced an increase in certain hospital-acquired infections, partly due to the heightened use of high-risk lifesaving invasive procedures. Hospitals’ central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) saw increases during the pandemic. As healthcare systems adapted to the challenges posed by the COVID and implemented effective safety practices, these infection rates have dropped.
In the first quarter of 2024, CLABSI and CAUTI were at rates lower than those recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019. According to the AHA, “the analysis suggests improvements in infection prevention measures as hospitals continue to optimize their practices and respond to evolving patient needs.”
Uptick in Screenings. According to the AHA report, multiple key preventive health screenings rapidly returned to pre-pandemic levels during the first quarter of 2024. Analysis of data indicated an ongoing improvement that has led to a 60-to-80-percent increase in breast, colon and cervical cancer screenings in the first quarter of this year as compared to the fourth quarter 2019.
For a complete review of the AHA report, please click on the following link: Download the Report PDF. In addition, our readers may want to check out the AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative, which is a data-driven effort to help hospitals and health systems reinforce and accelerate patient safety efforts. The initiative provides hospitals with tools and data to advance patient safety, as well as offering a platform for sharing stories of improvement with peers. For more information, you are encouraged to visit the following website: AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative webpage.