Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

6 INFECTION CONTROL & PATIENT SAFETY Patient Safety Issues Could Drive $383B in Healthcare Costs by 2022 By Megan Knowles B y 2022, avoidable adverse patient safety events across the U.S. and Western Europe, including health- care-associated infections, sepsis and di- agnostic errors, could cost $383.7 billion, according to a Frost & Sullivan analysis. Frost & Sullivan assessed the 30 most pressing safety adverse events affect- ing patients, caregivers and healthcare organizations worldwide. These events also included medication safety, pressure ulcers, antibiotic resistance and hand hygiene noncompliance. All together, these adverse events affect- ed around 91.8 million patient admis- sions in the U.S. and Western Europe, which resulted in approximately 1.95 million deaths. "Up to 17 percent of all hospitalizations are affected by one or more adverse events and around 15 percent of hospital expenditure is attributable to addressing them," said Anuj Agar wal, transforma- tional healthcare senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "The fact that 30 to 70 percent of these are potentially avoid- able makes it imperative to prevent them from happening." Care providers should focus their patient safety value proposition toward areas with significant disruptive potential, such as antibiotic resistance, cybersecu- rity, avoidable emergency department admissions, pressure ulcers and sepsis, Mr. Agar wal said.n Why This Flu Season Is Especially Bad for Baby Boomers By Mackenzie Bean A significant amount of Americans between ages 50 and 64 have been hospitalized for the flu this season, reported Business Insider. Infants usually develop more severe flu cases than adults since their immune systems have not been exposed to prior strains. However, "baby boomers have higher rates [of hospi- talization] than their grandchildren right now," CDC flu director Dan Jernigan, MD, MPH, told reporters Feb. 2, according to Business Insider. Scientists believe this year's flu, dominated by the H3N2 strain, has had an outsized effect on baby boomers due to a process called "imprinting." When a person is first exposed to a flu virus, whether through a vaccine or catch- ing the illness, the immune system teaches itself how to defend against the virus type. Baby boomers, born before the H3N2 strain even existed, were likely imprinted with an H2 flu strain, not H3, Matthew Miller, PhD, who studies the flu at McMaster University in Canada, told Business Insider. Therefore, their bodies may not know how to fend off the H3N2 strain as well as younger people imprinted with this virus type. The U.S. has experienced elevated flu levels for nine consecutive weeks as of Jan. 20, with flu activity hitting the highest level since 2009's flu pandemic. n Milwaukee Hospital Suspends Employees for Leaving Homeless Patient in Cold By Brian Zimmerman A dministrators at Milwaukee-based Aurora Sinai Medical Center suspended an undisclosed number of employees Jan. 23 after staff discharged a mentally ill homeless man clothed in only a hospital gown and scrub pants on Jan. 21, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A picture and video of the man surfaced on social media and local television, depicting the man sitting shoeless on a wet sidewalk outside of the hospital. The individual who took the video said the homeless man was rolled out of the hospital in a wheelchair and left on the sidewalk, Eva Welch, director of the local homeless organiza- tion Street Angels Milwaukee Outreach, told the Journal Sentinel. Ms. Welch also told the newspaper the man was brought to a shelter after receiving treatment for frostbite on his right foot at a different hospital two weeks prior to the incident. She said workers with her organization previously witnessed Aurora Sinai's security personnel discharge another homeless person into freezing temperatures. "They literally rolled him out of the wheelchair onto the sidewalk," Ms. Welch told the Journal Sentinel. In a statement emailed to Becker's Hospital Review, Tami Kou, direc- tor of public affairs for Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care, said the hospital is conducting an internal investigation of the incident. "While this is a highly complex case, it is clear that our protocols and values were not followed, and we're deeply troubled by this," Ms. Kou said. "We've set up a task force to help best address these com- plicated cases and ensure safe discharge planning for vulnerable individuals … We're also re-educating caregivers on our service com- mitments to treat all patients with dignity and respect. What occurred was contrary to our values, and we're doing everything that we can to make sure it doesn't happen again." News of patient dumping in Milwaukee follows similar incidents reported in Maryland and California. n

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