Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Catheter Safeguards At Hospitals Reduce Infections And Save Money, Study Shows

January 10, 2017 By Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

U.S. hospitals are reducing bloodstream infections related to catheters by implementing rigorous safeguards that also save millions of healthcare dollars each year, according to research led by Cedars-Sinai.

“Safety interventions are a win-win for both patients and hospitals,” says Teryl Nuckols, MD, MSHS, director of the Division of General Internal Medicine in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Medicine.

Nuckols led a multicenter team that studied data published in the last decade on catheter-related bloodstream infections at 113 hospitals. The team found that safety interventions, on average, reduced the infection rate by 57 percent at these hospitals while producing net savings of $1.85 million for each site over three years. The savings came from reduced costs in treating infected patients.

The study, published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal of the American Medical Association, focused on central venous catheters, also known as central lines, which are commonly used in intensive care units. These lines are placed in large veins in the arm, chest, neck or groin to deliver medications, fluids or blood to patients.

More than 60,000 primary bloodstream infections related to these catheters are estimated to occur each year in the U.S., with a fatality rate of 12 percent or more, according to recent studies.

To prevent these infections, hospitals in recent years have introduced new safety procedures. Checklists for attending staff include donning sterile gloves, covering catheters with antimicrobial dressings and checking catheters daily for signs of movement or infection. Many hospitals also have invested in extra training, equipment, and supplies to improve safety.

The phasing-in of these safeguards correlated with a 49 percent reduction nationally in the rate of catheter-related bloodstream infections from 2010 to 2013, according to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The new Cedars-Sinai-led study shows that these safeguards, while adding to equipment and labor costs, ultimately reduced infections and saved money.

In the hospitals studied, the median cost of implementing catheter safety programs was about $270,000 per site. But for every $100,000 that a hospital spent, it realized an average $315,000 savings because it treated fewer infected patients, the investigators found. Although savings were lower in certain hospitals that already had low infection rates, adding new precautions still paid off for them.

Nuckols said the study supports the value of medical centers upgrading their safety procedures to prevent catheter infections.

“Due to the high cost of caring for patients when central-line infections develop, even sizable up-front investments in infection prevention can be associated with large net savings,” Nuckols says. “On the basis of our findings, hospitals that have not yet achieved very low rates of infection can consider implementing a variety of safety practices.”

Related Articles Read More >

Logos of Creo Medical and Intuitive
Creo Medical inks collaboration agreement with Intuitive
Lazurite ArthroFree wireless surgical camera system Minnetronix Medical
How Minnetronix Medical helped Lazurite with its wireless surgical camera
Medtronic Hugo robot-assisted surgery system
The road to a robot: Medtronic’s development process for its Hugo RAS system
A portrait of Stryker executive Siddarth Satish
How Stryker includes users for product design in the digital age

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 20, 2022
DeviceTalks Boston Post-Game – Editors’ Top Moments, Insulet’s Eric Benjamin on future of Omnipod 5
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech