Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

20 PATIENT SAFETY & OUTCOMES 4 healthcare leaders on their 2021 patient safety goals, wins By Marcus Robertson O ne in every 10 patients is harmed while receiving hospital care in high-income countries, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO also estimates that among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-opera- tion and Development, including the U.S., 15 percent of hospital expenses come from addressing patient safety failures. A January 2020 Yale School of Medicine study found 22,000 pre- ventable hospital patient deaths per year in the U.S., and health- care leaders are working to lower numbers. Here are what four healthcare leaders told Becker's Hospital Re- view about their patient safety goals and wins this year. Note: Responses have been lightly edited for style and clarity. Question: What patient safety goals have you and your organization set for 2021? Scott Hayworth, MD. CEO, CareMount Health Solutions (Westchester, N.Y.): For 2021, one of the broad areas we have focused on [at CareMount] is perioperative care. As we transition lower-risk surgeries and procedures out of hospitals and ASCs and into our office-based surgical suites, we have developed practices to ensure patient safety and comfort. For example, we are integrating the QA processes and standardizing patient care workflows across our 17 office-based surgical practices in order to maintain the same high quality of care at each location. David Christensen, MD. Senior vice president of medical affairs, Valley Children's Healthcare (Madera, Calif.): Our board of directors and CEO have mandated that we eliminate all harm to patients. As such, we have set our hospital-acquired conditions goals to zero. We have been working with [the Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety Network] and other children's hospitals to incorporate best practices and to learn from each other. David Lee, MD. Senior vice president and CMO, Virginia Hos- pital Center (Arlington): Our 2021 goals for patient safety are to decrease hospital-wide mortality for cardiac and pulmonary con- ditions, stroke and especially sepsis. Hospital-acquired infections are always a concern, so attention will be on avoiding central line infections and urinary tract infections. Since the hospital is so busy, throughput is an area of concern — things like emergency department flow, decreasing length of stay and robust home/outpatient care to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations. CDC releases data on COVID-19 cases, deaths by vaccine type: 5 things to know By Erica Carbajal U nvaccinated people are about six times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 and 11 times more likely to die from the illness compared to people who are vaccinated, though there are slight differences in risk based on vaccine type, according to the CDC. The agency published data Oct. 15 that breaks down the rate of COVID-19 cases and deaths by vaccination status and vaccine type. The rates are based on data from 16 public health departments — representing about 30 percent of the U.S. population — and cover April through the end of August. Five notes: 1. Overall, unvaccinated people had the highest COVID-19 case and death rates. 2. The COVID-19 case and death rates were slightly higher among Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients, followed by Pfizer recipients and then Moderna. 3. As of Aug. 15, there were about 737 cases per 100,000 population among unvaccinated people — the highest rate during the period for which data was collected. 4. The case rates as of Aug. 15 for J&J recipients were about 172 cases per 100,000, followed by about 136 cases per 100,000 among Pfizer recipients, and 86 cases per 100,000 among Moderna recipients. 5. The death rates as of Aug. 15 were nearly 13 per 100,000 among unvaccinated people, 3 per 100,000 for J&J recip- ients, about 1.4 per 100,000 for people who got Pfizer's shot, and 0.69 per 100,000 for Moderna recipients. n "Although our serious safety event rate can ebb and flow over time, in the past 24 months alone, we have reduced our rate by approximately 50 percent." - Brian Kaminski, DO, Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety, ProMedica

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