NEMJ Study: Patient Safety Backslides During COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed improvements in hospital patient safety from previous years, as reported by an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Analysis found that central line-associated bloodstream infections increased by 28%  in the second quarter of 2020, rates that had declined by 31% in the 5 years preceding the pandemic.

According to Ron Southwick of Managed Healthcare Executive, “Key leaders from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention produced the analysis. They noted a host of reasons for the loss of ground on patient safety: hospitals have been flooded with COVID-19 patients, healthcare workers have been pushed beyond the brink of exhaustion, and many hospitals and nursing homes have battled staffing shortages.”

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(Source: Managed Healthcare Executive, February 17^th, 2022)