Page 34 - Hoag Orthopedic Institute 2014 Outcomes Report

IN 2013, HOI BECAME IS THE FIRST HOSPITAL IN ORANGE COUNTY TO INVEST IN THE NEW GERM-FIGHTING XENEX ROBOT.
DISTINCTIONS & INNOVATIONS CONTINUED
Payments for Care Improvement Initiative (BPCI). Under this initiative, organizations will enter into payment arrangements that include financial and performance accountability for episodes of care for Medicare patients. As stated in a perspective published last year in the New England Journal
of Medicine, “The Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative has great potential to engage hospitals in clinical redesign and care coordination that could improve both care and efficiency.”
While intentions are good, execution by most providers remains to be seen. With two years of experience in a bundled payment approach, HOI is well positioned to extend the bundled care system. Lessons learned through an Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) pilot bundled payment program, completed in September 2013 with HOI having the most bundled care episodes of any provider, proved constructive. Mechanisms developed to manage bundled payments, made possible through complete alignment between hospital administration, personnel and physicians on standardizing best practices, has made HOI’s bundled payment program a “well-oiled machine.”
Cigna, Aetna and Blue Shield all contract with HOI on bundled payments for joint replacement procedures. The transparency and predictability in price and practice have been well received by patients, employers and payers as well as HOI and its medical staff.
XENEX
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), nearly one out of every 20 hospitalized patients will contract a healthcare-associated infection (HAI). The HOI readmission rate for
surgical site infections stands at less than one percent – well below state and national averages. Nevertheless, to add an extra layer of protection against deadly pathogens and multi-drug resistant organisms that could potentially endanger patients, the hospital chose to take the battle against superbugs to the next level. HOI became the first hospital in Orange County to invest in a new germ-fighting Xenex robot, fondly named by staff as “Xena,” after the fabled warrior princess.
Xena is deployed after HOI team members have terminally cleaned, ceiling to floor, eliminating disease-causing organisms. The three-foot-tall disinfecting robot can be wheeled to virtually any location within the hospital, from patient rooms to operating rooms (ORs), equipment rooms and public areas.
After placing Xena in the operating room or a patient room, the HOI Environmental Services professional activates an automated sequence and leaves the room. The process is repeated on the other side of the room and in the bathroom, so that each of these areas receives 20 to 30 additional minutes of cleaning. Xena uses pulsed xenon ultraviolet (UV) light that is 25,000 times more powerful than sunlight to destroy harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi and bacterial spores before they can put patients at risk.
The infections the CDC names as urgent, serious or concerning in Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013 can be eradicated by Xena. The system is effective against Clostridium difficile (C. diff), Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus Aureus, (MRSA), norovirus, influenza and staph bacteria.
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