Page 157 - Assurance of Sterility for Sensitive Combination Products and Materials

Preventing health care associated infections 139

long-term disability and even death. There is a huge financial burden for
HCFs with the overall direct cost ranging from $1006 to $25,546 for a
single US Hospital HAI.
In addition to the direct financial impact on the HCF, it is estimated that
HAIs cost 7 billion euros in the EU and 6.5 billion dollars in the United
States in lost productivity. The HAI Prevalence Survey results were pub-
lished in 2014 which described the burden of HAIs in US hospitals. The
survey reported that in 2011, there were an estimated 721,800 HAIs in US
acute-care hospitals. These consisted of the following types and numbers [5]:
• Pneumonia: 157,500
• SSIs, inpatient surgery: 157,500
• Gastrointestinal illness: 123,100
• Urinary tract infections: 93,300
• Primary bloodstream infections: 71,900
About 75,000 patients with HAIs died during their hospitalizations.
Additional HAIs occurred due to other reasons not cited in this report.
Limitations in scope and data collection methods preclude data from vari-
ous studies providing complete information on national rates of HAIs. For
this reason, estimates from different studies will differ.

6.4 Causes of HAIs
Leadership is an important component in preventing HAIs. Senior leader-
ship needs to promote a culture of safety. Though this may sound simple, it is
not that easy to do. Processes need to be developed to ensure that employees
can report and openly discuss safety without fear of retaliation and intimi-
dation. According to the 2016 Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture by
the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), there are several
areas where hospitals need to improve in the culture of safety [6]. In the
User Comparative Database from this report, the average percent positive
responses range from 82% to 45%. Composite topics are shown below in
order from highest average percent positive response to the lowest.
• Teamwork Within Units
• Supervisor/Manager Expectations and Actions Promoting Patient Safety
• Organizational Learning—Continuous Improvement
• Management Support for Patient Safety
• Feedback and Communication About Error
• Frequency of Events Reported
• Overall Perceptions of Patient Safety