Background

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) selected Ohio as one of 10 states to participate in a national initiative to reduce central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSI). This two-year project is led by the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Quality & Safety Research Group (JHU) and the Keystone Center for Patient Safety and Quality of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA). According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 250,000 central line- associated blood stream infections occur in hospitals each year. As many as 62,000 patients who get these infections die as a result. The cost to the healthcare system is about $25,000 per episode. 

In Ohio, CLABSI cases are estimated around 11,000. This is an excess in healthcare costs for Ohio around $392 million. Recognizing blood stream infections occur outside the ICU, Ohio on the CUSP will include non-ICU units as well as ICU in the CUSP project. Ohio hopes to become a model nationwide on how to implement the CUSP project to dramatically reduce CLABSI rates house wide.