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In an effort to enhance their infection control programs, three hospitals will leveragethe Premier healthcare alliance's SafetySurveillor® automated surveillance solution and the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON).

SafetySurveillor helps hospitals prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and optimize antibiotic use, thereby improving the quality of care and reducing hospital costs.

DICON, a collaboration of the Duke University School of Medicine and 38 community hospitals, provides physicians and nurses educational tools designed to engage and empower hospital personnel to take an active role in reducing HAIs.

New SafetySurveillor and DICON users are: Cooley Dickinson Hospital of Northampton, Mass.; Lafayette General Medical Center of Lafayette, La.; and Mon General Hospital of Morgantown, W.Va. They will use both offerings as a part of the SafetyConnect^TM program, Premier's integrated product and service program aimed at addressing the pressing safety and infection-related challenges facing healthcare organizations today.

"Both DICON and Premier are focused on assisting hospitals of all sizes and locations with improving patient outcomes by reducing the rate of HAIs and minimizing their associated costs," said Premier's Scott D. Pope, Pharm.D., SafetySurveillor national director. "DICON's, ready-to-implement, on-line educational tools and strategies, coupled with SafetySurveillor's ability to facilitate more timely intervention to reduce and prevent infections, provide hospitals a formidable partnership to fight infections."

"DICON has been providing affiliated- hospitals with regular and timely information on best practices and best technology as well as educational programs on infection control for more than 12 years," said Dr. Dan Sexton, medical director of DICON.

Hospitals that have used DICON's evidence-based resources have proven reductions in hospital associated infections ranging from 18 percent to 40 percent in such areas as MRSA, blood stream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia.

SafetySurveillor has helped providers reduce infection rates leading to decreases in mortality and length of stay for infection cases while reducing costs; reduction in urinary tract infections; quicker intervention with appropriate drug therapy for critical patients; and reduced costs through the elimination of unnecessary MRSA screening for ICU patients.

DICON provides training courses for nurses and physicians containing valuable, updated information on evidence-based practices for correctly and safely inserting central venous catheters (CVCs), and for properly accessing, maintaining and removing CVCs. These courses provide hospitals with an economical, practical and effective way to meet important parts of the National Patient Safety Goals. DICON also provides hospitals with prevention initiatives on catheter-associated UTIs, colorectal surgery and clostridium difficile.

SafetyConnect includes a comprehensive offering of data analytics and software, performance improvement support services and collaborative knowledge sharing opportunities to improve ongoing infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship. To enhance the program as well as increase operational and financial performance, Premier partnered with DICON in December 2008.

SafetyConnect also utilizes Premier's Performance Improvement Portal service, a library of performance improvement advice and best practices; evidence-based toolkits addressing issues such as antimicrobial stewardship; and resources from the publicly accessible Premier Safety Institute, which provides safety resources and tools to promote a safe healthcare delivery environment for patients, workers and their communities.

Premier is one of the participants in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) project to electronically submit aggregate level HAI data from hospitals to the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network.

About The Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON)

The Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON), a collaboration of the Duke University School of Medicine and 38 community hospitals, is focused on improving infection control programs by compiling data on nosocomial infections at member hospitals, identifying trends and areas for improvement, and providing ongoing education and leadership to community providers. DICON helps hospitals with limited resources develop state-of-the-art infection control programs and gives institutions with more sophisticated programs access to comparative statistics to support infection control efforts. The primary focus of DICON is to improve outcomes for patients – reducing the rate of nosocomial (healthcare-associated) infections and minimizing the costs associated with nosocomial and community-acquired infections. For more information, use this link.

About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient

The Premier healthcare alliance is more than 2,200 U.S. hospitals and 63,000-plus other healthcare sites working together to improve healthcare quality and affordability. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier works with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has offices in San Diego, Philadelphia and Washington. Follow Premier on Twitter.