Fewer patients have died due to hospital-acquired conditions over the past five years and hospitals saved more than $28 billion in healthcare costs during the same time period, according to a new federal government report.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services credits the 21 percent decline in hospital-acquired conditions in part to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
“The Affordable Care Act gave us tools to build a better healthcare system that protects patients, improves quality, and makes the most of our healthcare dollars and those tools are generating results,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell in the announcement. “Today’s report shows us hundreds of thousands of Americans have been spared from deadly hospital-acquired conditions, resulting in thousands of lives saved and billions of dollars saved.”
Indeed, the report, “National Scorecard on Rates of Hospital-Acquired Conditions,” by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, finds that roughly 125,000 fewer patients died during 2010 to 2015. In total, hospital patients experienced more than 3 million fewer hospital-acquired conditions, such as adverse drug events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line associated bloodstream infections, pressure ulcers and surgical site infections, during that time period.
HENRY KOTULA 