About two million infections are acquired in U.S. hospitals each year, killing about 90,000 people and adding more than $30.5 billion to the nation's health care costs.
In partnership with Quality Partners of Rhode Island, the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, and RI acute care hospitals, the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI) initiated the RI Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Collaborative to dramatically lower complications, mortality rates, and costs from these preventable infections in RI’s ICUs.
Rhode Island is the first in the nation to engage every hospital and cover every single adult ICU bed in the state in a collaborative improvement effort. Some of the many achievements of this program include a statewide reduction in deadly and costly central-line associated bloodstream infections by 62%, a drop in ventilator-associated pneumonia by 21%, and staff perceptions of an improved “safety climate.”
