On October 1, 2008, AHRQ awarded a $3 million dollar contract to Johns Hopkins University and the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. The funding will be used to continue work on reducing central line-associated bloodstream infections in hospital ICUs since each year, an estimated 250,000 cases of central line-associated bloodstream infections occur in hospitals in the U.S. An estimated 30,000 to 62,000 patients who get the infections die as a result, according to CDC.
The new program builds on a successful safety checklist and program developed by Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Professor for Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, and Surgery. He is founding Director of the Quality and Safety Research Group and serves as the Medical Director for the Johns Hopkins Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care.
When implemented in Michigan in partnership with the MHA, participating hospitals reduced catheter-related bloodstream infections by up to 66 percent using a simple checklist of evidence-based precautions. With the funding from AHRQ, the checklist will be implemented by statewide consortia in at least ten more states according to Dr.Pronovost. The consortia will include members of state hospital associations, quality improvement organizations, and public health agencies.
Earlier this month, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded a $500,000 grant to Dr. Pronovost, and last week, the House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released a report strongly endorsing the Dr. Pronovost’s work.
