Positioning infectious disease physician leaders to promote patient safety, mitigate risk: A cost avoidance revenue model
Abstract
With the increase in the number of Medicare beneficiaries, more cost-efficient care is needed to preserve the Medicare budget. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have instituted value-based purchasing (VBP) to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes. The VBP programme has incentivised healthcare systems to allocate resources and effort to decrease healthcare-acquired conditions (HACs). Initial HACs were heavily weighted in infection-related conditions, and improvements have been actualised through infectious disease leadership. The VBP programme is anticipated to expand to new domains in antimicrobial stewardship (AS) with the addition of AS programmes to the hospitals’ conditions of participation. The VBP programme along with other evidence demonstrates that infectious disease care and leadership leads to improved patient outcomes and decreased healthcare costs. Healthcare systems should assess current infectious disease physician engagement and optimise the utilisation of this expertise to improve outcomes for a more cost avoidance revenue model.
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Author's Biography
Susan C. Bleasdale is the interim Chief Quality Officer and the physician lead for infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System (UIH). In administrative roles, she directs initiatives to reduce infections and multidrug- resistant organisms (MDROs) and to improve antimicrobial prescribing. In research, she was the lead investigator for one of the first studies of chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) use to reduce bloodstream infections. Current research activity is related to the study of interventions to reduce infections and improve antibiotic stewardship and antimicrobial clinical trials. Bleasdale is a lead investigator for a study to reduce surgical site infections as part of the CDC Epicenters for Prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs). Prior Epicenter work studied the transmission of HAIs via healthcare workers and the effective use of personal protective equipment to prevent transmission. In addition, she is currently working on inpatient and ambulatory antimicrobial stewardship interventions. Her clinical practice is general infectious disease and HIV care. She has activities related to infectious disease policy, advocacy and guidelines through leadership roles in the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. She is the current chair of the IDSA Clinical Affairs Committee.
Citation
Bleasdale, Susan C. (2020, March 1). Positioning infectious disease physician leaders to promote patient safety, mitigate risk: A cost avoidance revenue model. In the Management in Healthcare: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 4, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.69554/IDUK2938.
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