Return on Investment

Cost Savings Through Prevention – One study found a linear relationship exists between hand hygiene compliance and HAI rates. For each 1% increase in hand hygiene compliance, there is a 0.6% decline in the prevalence rate of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA).

Increasing hand hygiene compliance can save hospitals big money by avoiding HAI related costs and freeing up beds. As an example, a hospital that improves its compliance rate from 40% to 80% could experience a 24% decline in infections (40% x 0.6). This translates to 12 fewer infections for a hospital with a history of 50 HAIs per year (24% x 50 HAIs). Assuming an average cost of $43,000 per infection, the hospital would save $516,000 per year in HAI related costs.

Hospitals with better hand hygiene compliance rates benefit from stronger reputations, fewer infections and associated costs, shorter patient length of stay, easier accreditation processes and higher scores on government and municipal quality measures. More importantly, hand hygiene compliance helps save lives!

Benefits of Process Improvement – In a special report by Wharton business school and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the benefits of Lean and Six Sigma process transformations are discussed in regard to length of patient stay. The report illustrates a hospital with 800 beds that cuts average length of stay by just 10 percent can free up nearly 80 beds per year, enabling the delivery of more than 4,000 additional procedures and boosting operating profit by almost $30 million. This approach effectively "builds" new beds for the hospital. With new construction costs averaging $1 million per bed today, the reports states another $80 million in averted capital can be realized by the hospital.

Contact Excelion today to learn how your hospital can benefit from Accreditrack™ and the Real-Time Hospital Measurement System™.