A CD of The Buck Stops Soon: Prevent CR-BSIs or Pay Up Audio Conference held Wednesday, March 26, 2008

A 90-minute interactive audio conference presentation including 1.5 nursing contact hours and 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ brought to you from the publisher of Hospital Infection Control and Infectious Disease Alert

Presenter: William Jarvis, MD

Prevention of catheter-related bloodstream infections: Are you holding your staff accountable for rising rates?

Payers slashing reimbursement for an expensive infection

Catheter related bloodstream infections (CR-BSIs) – already one of the most expensive and deadly health care associated infections – are about to get a lot more costly for hospitals and other medical settings.

Catheter-related vascular infection is one of three "preventable conditions" targeted for payment cutbacks by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). (The other two are mediastinitis and catheter-related urinary tract infections.) Effective October 2008, the costs for many CR-BSIs – which run an average $45,000 per infection — will be kicked back to hospitals. With private insurers expected to follow the CMS action, hospitals and health care systems have never had a greater incentive to prevent CR-BSIs.

But CR-BSIs don't just affect the bottom-line, they cause the flat line. Some 28,000 patients die annually of these infections, which emerging research and cutting-edge practice suggest are largely preventable. We're not talking about a rare event. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that a quarter of a million patients annually acquire a blood stream infection related to a central venous catheter. Roughly a third of those are already in serious condition in an intensive care unit. The time has come; the buck is stopping. For proven strategies to save money and lives by preventing these infections join us for a timely audio conference.

William Jarvis, MD is one of the world's leading experts on health care epidemiology and recently conducted an unprecedented national prevalence study of MRSA. Now an independent consultant, Dr. Jarvis had a long career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he supervised hospital outbreak investigations, epidemiology training, and infection control guideline development. He is widely published in health care epidemiology journals and a frequent speaker at national and international infection prevention meetings.

Registration:
The fee of $349 allows you to invite as many listeners from your facility as you can accommodate around your conference telephone. Call 1-800-688-2421 or click here to order the CD. Please mention code #11T08223.

Registration includes:

• The fee of just $349 per CD allows you to share this valuable information with as many listeners from your facility as you wish
• Access to the specially created presentation handouts (available 48 hours in advance)
• The live Q&A with our expert following the presentation
• Credit letters for all audio conference attendees

Formats available:

Live Audio Conference

CD

MP3 download

Streaming audio

Click here for more information

Agenda:

1. Introduction and pathogenesis
   1. Recent data and reporting
   2. CMS' involvement in the prevention of CAIs
2. Immediate measures to prevent and reduce the risk of infection
   1. Proper insertion techniques
   2. Staff education
   3. Getting to zero
3. Holding staff accountable toward the improvement of patient care
   1. Ensuring the reduction of adverse outcomes
4. CAI Bundle
5. Using the catheter insertion monitoring tool
6. Interactive question and answer session

Learning Objectives:
By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Discuss the pathogenesis of catheter associated infections
• Implement major prevention and intervention steps for reducing the risk of catheter associated infections
• Describe strategies to hold staff accountable for maintaining standards to prevent CAI
• Analyze the impact of applying CDC catheter associated infections prevention bundle
• Describe the objective of the CA-BSI monitoring tool

Who should register: Physicians, Risk managers, Infection control personnel, Nurses and nurse managers, Quality improvement staff, Emergency department staff, Intensive care unit staff

Participation:

Each listener participates in the continuing education activity by listening to the audio conference and completing the online post test and evaluation.

Accreditation Statement:

AHC Media LLC is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AHC Media LLC is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Credit Designation:

AHC Media LLC designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This activity has been approved for 1.5 nursing contact hours using a 60-minute contact hour.

Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider # 14749, for 1.5 Contact Hours.

Sponsor:

The sponsor of this educational activity is AHC Media LLC.

The information provided in AHC Media audio conferences does not, and is not intended to constitute medical diagnoses or legal advice. Individual tracer methodology outcomes cannot be guaranteed. Opinions, references and links provided by our speakers are provided for your convenience and do not represent our endorsement of such opinions, products or services.