Study at HCA Healthcare Hospitals Shows Significant Reduction in Bloodstream Infections

HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA), a leading healthcare provider with 185 hospitals and more than 1,800 sites of care in 20 states and the United Kingdom, today announced a study published in the current issue of The Lancet and conducted exclusively at HCA Healthcare hospitals has shown an infection control technique achieved a 31 percent reduction in bloodstream infections and nearly a 40 percent reduction in antibiotic-resistant bacteria among non-ICU patients with central line catheters and lumbar drains.

As a result of the study, HCA Healthcare has begun implementing the infection prevention protocol in its hospitals.

“This reflects HCA Healthcare’s commitment to be a true learning healthcare system,” said Jonathan B. Perlin, MD, HCA Healthcare’s president, clinical services, and chief medical officer and one of the study’s authors. “We use the knowledge we capture from delivering care to millions of patients a year for continuous improvement and innovation, not only to fuel our own quality improvement efforts but also to solve vexing societal challenges such as infection prevention.”

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are a serious patient safety issue and their elimination is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). On any given day, about one in 31 hospital patients has at least one HAI, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study, known as the ABATE Infection (active bathing to eliminate infection) Trial, is part of a national strategy to reduce HAIs. The study was conducted through a longstanding collaboration among HCA Healthcare, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, the University of California Irvine, and Rush University. The ABATE Trial was funded by the National Institutes of Health with contributed effort from HCA Healthcare. ABATE was conducted at 53 HCA Healthcare hospitals during a 21-month period involving 330,000 patients. Because it was a large-scale, pragmatic trial—a study conducted under “real world” conditions at community hospitals—the results of ABATE are believed to be generally applicable to hospitals across the country.