Cardinal CEO has plan to trim medical mistakes
[2008-4-14]
WASHINGTON -- Selling more infection-surveillance systems and prescription dosage-monitoring devices to hospitals would be good business for Cardinal Health, of course.
But it also would lead to higher-quality care and lower costs for the nation's health-care providers, said R. Kerry Clark, the Dublin-based Cardinal's chairman and chief executive officer.
Clark spoke about Cardinal's push for increased patient-safety initiatives yesterday during a newsmakers forum here at the National Press Club.
The chief executive of the health-care services company also unveiled $1 million in grants to 34 hospitals nationwide -- including a $35,000 award to Nationwide Children's Hospital Foundation in Columbus -- to help advance patient safety improvements.
Medical errors cause more deaths each year than motor-vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS combined, Clark said. He cited Institute of Medicine figures showing that medication mistakes alone harm more than 1.5 million patients annually, cause nearly 100,000 deaths and cost the health-care industry more than $3.5 billion.
Meanwhile, 2 million people a year pick up infections in hospitals, costing health-care systems $20 billion annually, which translates to an additional $8,000 to $12,000 per patient, Clark said.
An electronic infection-surveillance system that Cardinal has developed can reduce the number of such infections by 20 percent, he said. If all hospitals used a system of this sort, 400,000 infection cases and $4 billion in treatment expenses could be avoided each year, Clark said.
"I don't think we necessarily have to spend more to improve quality," he said.
But it also would lead to higher-quality care and lower costs for the nation's health-care providers, said R. Kerry Clark, the Dublin-based Cardinal's chairman and chief executive officer.
Clark spoke about Cardinal's push for increased patient-safety initiatives yesterday during a newsmakers forum here at the National Press Club.
The chief executive of the health-care services company also unveiled $1 million in grants to 34 hospitals nationwide -- including a $35,000 award to Nationwide Children's Hospital Foundation in Columbus -- to help advance patient safety improvements.
Medical errors cause more deaths each year than motor-vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS combined, Clark said. He cited Institute of Medicine figures showing that medication mistakes alone harm more than 1.5 million patients annually, cause nearly 100,000 deaths and cost the health-care industry more than $3.5 billion.
Meanwhile, 2 million people a year pick up infections in hospitals, costing health-care systems $20 billion annually, which translates to an additional $8,000 to $12,000 per patient, Clark said.
An electronic infection-surveillance system that Cardinal has developed can reduce the number of such infections by 20 percent, he said. If all hospitals used a system of this sort, 400,000 infection cases and $4 billion in treatment expenses could be avoided each year, Clark said.
"I don't think we necessarily have to spend more to improve quality," he said.
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