California Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Initiative (CHAIPI)
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Program Director
Deborah Schwab
Having served as a nurse practitioner, hospital administrator, and health plan program director, Ms. Schwab now leads the Foundation’s efforts to improve the quality of patient care through advances in health technology.
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Key Facts
A Program of Blue Shield of California Foundation
Background
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that this year one of every 20 patients will contract a healthcare-associated infection (HAI). HAIs contribute to more deaths each year than AIDS, Alzheimer's, auto accidents or diabetes, and are the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. The costs in human suffering and healthcare dollars are enormous:
- 1.7 million reported HAI cases annually across the nation
- 99,000 of annual cases resulting in death
- $20 billion in additional treatment costs resulting from HAIs
Seeing an opportunity to make significant improvements, Blue Shield of California Foundation provided $1 million in grants in 2005 to support an innovative pilot project to determine if new technology could be used to immediately identify and dramatically reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Working with nine hospitals, the Foundation launched the California Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Initiative (CHAIPI) and saw stunning outcomes from the 18-month pilot. As a result of CHAIPI, the nine hospitals collectively saw:
- More than 600 lives protected from HAIs
- 4,641 days of hospital stays avoided
- $9 million in healthcare costs avoided
- Bottom-line savings to hospitals of nearly $2.2 million
Excited and encouraged by the success of the CHAIPI pilot, the Foundation is committing an additional $4 million to expand the program to include 55 hospitals across the state. The goal is to ultimately eliminate HAIs. Through CHAIPI II, Blue Shield of California Foundation and the 55 participating facilities hope to see:
- 2,000 fewer instances of HAIs than would occur without the program
- 15,000 fewer patient hospital days than would result from HAIs otherwise
- Nearly $7.5 million in bottom-line savings for hospitals
- Nearly $30 million in avoided costs for patients, hospitals and the healthcare system
CHAIPI II is open to both nonprofit and for-profit health facilities.
- All 55 participating hospitals will take part in an advanced learning collaborative staffed by infection prevention leaders from nationally recognized organizations such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Association for Professional in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and California Institute for Health Systems Performance (CIHSP)
- The nine original hospitals will serve as mentor hospitals in CHAIPI II
- 14 nonprofit hospitals will receive grant funding to help purchase new data-mining technology
- Participating for-profit hospitals will have the opportunity to purchase data-mining technology at a reduced rate
