Premier healthcare alliance has offered to put its data analytics to use to help the White House fight antibiotic resistant bacteria, which Premier calls an international public health issue.
Premier is responding to an executive order and a national strategy President Barack Obama released recently.
"Premier is pleased that antimicrobial stewardship is one of the president’s key directives and a cornerstone of the White House's national strategy," Blair Childs, Premier's senior vice president of public affairs, wrote in an Oct. 9 letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. "While hospitals recognize the importance of such efforts and have put into place protocols to advance appropriate use of antibiotics, a more comprehensive strategy is needed. We believe the growing threat of infections and other microorganisms becoming resistant to antimicrobial agents calls for this elevated, coordinated response from the Administration."
In the letter, Childs detailed Premier's efforts in tackling resistant infections, pointing out that Premier has partnered with the CDC to conduct research earlier this year on unnecessary antibiotic use in hospitals.
He pointed to Premier's QUEST High-Performing Hospitals initiative, which compares and scales innovative solutions for acute care patients.
"In fact, few if any organizations have been more engaged and impactful in this area," Childs wrote.
[See also: QUEST hospitals move the dots toward saving lives and Premier's QUEST collaborative expands reach.]
Premier, an alliance of 3,000 U.S. hospitals and 110,000 other healthcare organizations, employs data analytics to boost patient outcomes while at the same time lowering costs. Among the problems the alliance has tackled are healthcare acquired infections.
Participating hospitals have reduced:
- CLABSI rates by 82 percent;
- Septicemia infection rates by 36 percent;
- Ventilator acquired pneumonia rates by 23 percent; and
- Catheter-associated urinary tract infections rates by 19 percent.
[See also: Sharp HealthCare harnesses IT to fight infection.]
"Again, we commend the Administration on its ambitious agenda to address the escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance," Childs concludes in his letter. "We appreciate our long-standing partnership with your department on this and other safety issues and believe that with our data analytics capabilities, we can do more to help the Administration address the problem."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Premier Inc. released new research on the widespread use of unnecessary and duplicative antibiotics in U.S. hospitals, which could have led to an estimated $163 million in excess costs.
Access Premier's letter here.
