Hospitals are faring better on key quality and safety measures than they were before the pandemic, according to a new report from The American Hospital Association and Vizient.
The report projects that 200,000 patients admitted to U.S. hospitals between April 2023 and March 2024 survived episodes of care that they would not have in 2019. Taken together, the findings suggest clinical leaders' steady focus on improving safety after pandemic-related setbacks over the past few years are paying off, even when caring for a sicker, more complex patient population.
"New data analyses show not only a rebound but an improvement on pre-pandemic performance in patient safety," the report said.
For the analysis, Vizient — a healthcare improvement and group-purchasing organization — used data from 715 general acute hospitals spanning the fourth quarter of 2019 through the first quarter of this year. Data was pulled from hospitals that routinely submit clinical information to a Vizient database.
Three findings:
- Overall, hospitals are caring for more high-acuity patients now than they were four years ago. Still, patients in the first quarter of this year were 20% more likely to survive considering the severity of their illness compared to the last quarter of 2019.
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Rates of central-line associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections in the first quarter of 2024 were lower than 2019 levels.
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Preventive health screenings have improved from pre-pandemic levels. Compared to 2019, breast, colon and cervical cancer screenings have increased between 60% and 80%.