How evidence-based products can lower the risk of SSIs for patients and providers.
Sponsored: Ansell- August 2024 – The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
With more than four decades of experience as an infection preventionist, Maureen Spencer has seen her fair share of surgical site infections (SSIs). “The worst, in my opinion, are the total joints,” said Spencer, Med, BSN, RN, CIC, FAPIC, and independent consultant. “When the hardware gets infected, the prosthetic joint gets infected, so they must determine how far the infection went down into the joint. Is it in the joint capsule and they could do an irrigation and debridement, or do they have to get in there and take that equipment out?”
In almost all SSI cases, patients will have to stay in the hospital longer or be readmitted. It is devastating to the patient, and costly to the hospital.
“Patients don’t want an infection,” said Independent Consultant Peter Graves, BSN, RN, CNOR, who joined Spencer and Repertoire Publisher Scott Adams on a podcast to discuss SSIs. “Not only are they economically devastated because of it, it’s a significant burden on the family, the payer, and the patient.”
So, how do healthcare providers determine the true cost?
While older studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and assorted healthcare researchers put the price tag roughly around $25,000, Spencer had a suspicion that the estimate barely scratched the surface when accounting for additional factors such as readmissions and CMS penalties. Through extensive research and an innovative IBM program that tied several data sets together, Spencer and her team discovered that in nearly every category, the average costs of SSIs were much higher. For instance:
- Total hip replacements averaged $42,000.
- Total knees averaged $41,000.
- Colorectal averaged $75,000.
- Spine fusions averaged $43,000.
Having that understanding of the potential impact of SSIs is key for supply chain teams to make decisions related to evidence-based products, Spencer and Graves said.
The power of optimization
Optimizing patients before surgery and making sure they are fully prepared, regardless of their payer mix, can have a profound impact on the outcome, even leading to a reduced chance of SSIs, said Graves.
In the podcast discussion, Graves presented the idea of “surgical care bundles” with products and strategies providers could employ before, during, and after the surgical procedure. The list includes:
- Patient education/optimization
- Smoking cessation
- Normothermia
- Glycemic control
- Nasal staphylococcal decolonization
- Double gloving
Pairing this bundle illustration with data and outcomes, supply chain teams will get more traction from the C-suite in paying more for a product initially if they can show how the product reduces the chance of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs), thus opening more beds to put people in and protecting the hospital from costly readmissions.
“We’re going to have less CMS penalties, we’re going to have less cost to the institution,” Spencer said. “The patients are going to be healthier.”
To listen to the full podcast, visit https://www.jhconline.com/how-evidence-based-products-can-lower-the-risk-of-ssis-for-patients-and-providers-podcast.html