April 23, 2012
http://h-a-i-5.blogspot.com/
Honorable California Senator Ed Hernandez
Chair, California Senate Health Committee
State Capitol , Room 4085
Sacramento, CA, 95814
Regarding: Reduction or eradication of HAI
(Hospital Associated Infections)!
Dear Senator Hernandez
Please
allow me to once again thank you and your fellow Senators on the California
State Senate Health Committee for your efforts concerning patient safety in our
medical system. My advocacy for the reduction or elimination of Hospital
Associated Infections (H.A.I.) has led me to your office for all parties at the
national level are awaiting “best practices” created at the state level and I
can find no reason why the Great State of California should not lead the way.
Why is V.A.P., Ventilator-associated pneumonia,
even in our hospital system? According to Quality Progress Magazine:
Schneck
Medical Center, Jackson County, IN, 2011 Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award
recipient:
Ask anyone who has ever been treated at a
hospital to list the jobs that are key to a positive patient experience and
you’ll hear the obvious: doctors, nurses and receptionists. But what about the
staff that deal with money more than medicine? Or those in H.R. instead of
E.R.?
That all-inclusive approach to putting the
patient first helped Schneck Medical Center(SMC) in Jackson, IN, earn a 2011
Baldgrige award and, more importantly, created an organization culture as
healthy as the customers it serves. SMC created a patient-focused system
supported by four areas-quality of care, customer service, fiscal and
operations and human resources- and each area saw the improvements you’d expect
from a Baldrige recipient.
Quality of care. For any
organization, it’s quite a feat to measure your time between negative incidents
in years. SMC is in that elite class thanks to a focus on preventing
hospital-acquired infections. It recorded zero central line-associated
bloodstream infections in 2011, the last case of ventilator-associated
pneumonia was in 2009, and overall rate of hospital-acquired infections has
remained at or below 1% since 2008.
The U.S. Department on Health and
Human Services reports that there is a hospital in Daily City, CA, that has not
had a case of V.A.P. in four years. In my opinion, it is time to start rating
these facilities “V.A.P. Free” in my opinion, a phrase the consumer can
understand!
Perhaps encouraging T.J.C. (The Joint Commission) to take action, the
public will drive the process, a V.A.P. free facility should be more efficient,
cost effective and above all “safer”!
Once
again, “thank you” for all that you do for the State of California!
Respectfully,
Michael H. Slavinski
Honorable President of the United States Barack Obama
Honorable United Stated Senator Dianne Feinstein
Honorable United States Senator Barbara Boxer
Honorable Majority
Whip united States Congressman Kevin McCarthy
Honorable Governor Edmond G. Brown Jr.
The Great State of California
Honorable California Assemblymember William W. Monning
Chair, Committee on Health Care
Honorable California Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian
Ms. Donna M. Beiter, RN, MSN
Director,
V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Systems
Mark R. Chassin, M.D., F.A.C.P., M.P. P., M.P.H.
President
The Joint Commission
Ms. Amy Panagopoulos
Senior Director
The Joint Commission
Ms. Pam Kehaly
President, Anthem Blue Cross
Mr. Eddy W. Hartenstrin
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, Los Angeles Times
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tribune Company
Staff, Anthem Blue Cross
"If we can improve the quality of care,
that will translate into lower cost," Anthem President Pam Kehaly said.
"These are real dollars."
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