Trump is laying waste to the agency that keeps hospital patients safe | Robert B Shpiner
Few have heard of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, but it has saved tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars When I started my training in 1980, we accepted an arithmetic that would now be indefensible. Central lines, the catheters we threaded into the great veins of the critically ill, became infected, and some of those patients died. We recorded the deaths as…
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a lesser-known federal agency, has made significant contributions to patient safety in healthcare facilities. Established in 2008, the AHRQ spearheaded a nationwide initiative that focused on reducing central-line bloodstream infections in intensive care units. Central lines, catheters inserted into major veins of critically ill patients, often became infected, leading to preventable deaths.
However, the AHRQ introduced a sterile insertion protocol, a checklist, and a culture of vigilance among nurses, enabling them to halt surgical procedures if necessary. As a result, central-line bloodstream infections decreased by 41%, from 1.915 to 1.133 cases per 1,000 catheter days. The AHRQ estimates that this single effort alone prevented between 290 and 605 deaths.
Furthermore, across its broader work on preventing hospital-acquired harm, the AHRQ's accounting credits the agency with averting 20,500 deaths and saving $7.7 billion in healthcare costs between 2014 and 2017. Despite its crucial role, the AHRQ remains relatively unknown, as its impact is often not communicated to patients themselves.
Written by urgent.news from The Guardian US's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
