$50,000 grant awarded during HealthTrust University Conference
NASHVILLE, Tennessee—July 25, 2018—LifePoint Health®, a leading healthcare company based in Brentwood, Tennessee with a mission of Making Communities Healthier®, today was awarded the HealthTrust Innovation Grant for its antimicrobial stewardship program and demonstrating the organization’s commitment to appropriate antimicrobial usage. LifePoint will apply the grant, valued at $50,000, to advance its capabilities in Days of Therapy reporting, and Antimicrobial Use and Resistance reporting across facilities in 22 states.
The Innovation Grant will underpin LifePoint’s stewardship program by helping educate staff, practitioners, patients and their families about the risks of antimicrobial misuse. Data from the initiative will help improve proper antimicrobial use and patient outcomes. Coupled with HealthTrust inSight Advisory resources, the award will offset costs of implementing an internal solution (versus outsourcing) that meets CMS/National Healthcare Safety Network reporting standards, and provides LifePoint with actionable metrics relating to:
- Days of Therapy (DOT) and Antimicrobial Use (AU) by targeted medication class, medication and disease state (i.e., MRSA, C. diff)
- Antimicrobial Resistance (AR)
- Benchmark and trending reports for operational, clinical and financial outcomes
“Up to one-third of all antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are unnecessary or inappropriate, and misuse contributes to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance,” said John J. Young, M.D., chief medical officer of HealthTrust. “Improving the use of antibiotics is a national priority. By tracking, reporting and taking actions based on these data, LifePoint will help curb hospital-acquired infections and the costs associated with treating them.”
“Our goal is to provide real, actionable data to our clinicians to support their efforts in regards to optimal antimicrobial use,” said Ken Gagnon, vice president of pharmacy services for LifePoint Health. ”To build and operationalize this solution internally requires collaboration among a number of our service lines and integrating multiple EHR platforms. This grant, along with service line support from HealthTrust, will help us advance our mission of Making Communities Healthier® by improving appropriate and cost-effective antimicrobial use and enhancing clinical outcomes.”
HealthTrust established the Innovation Grant in 2014 to sponsor and reward new, scalable ideas for advancing healthcare by improving care delivery, health outcomes, cost savings, operational efficiency or population health. The $50,000 award provides a $25,000 grant and $25,000 in HealthTrust service line expertise to support the replication of best practices across the membership.
LifePoint’s initiative will be reported in HealthTrust’s magazine, The Source, and distributed among HealthTrust’s membership. The project team from LifePoint includes Ken Gagnon, PharmD, vice president, pharmacy services; John Theobald, PharmD, group director, pharmacy services; Chris Frost, M.D., national medical director, quality resources; Sandi Hyde, director, quality resources; Allen Armstrong, director, business intelligence; and Alex Ladd, manager, medication management informatics. The executive sponsor for the program is Greg Hostettler, senior vice president of supply chain operations.
About HealthTrust
HealthTrust (Healthtrust Purchasing Group, L.P.) is committed to strengthening provider performance and clinical excellence through an aligned membership model and the delivery of total spend management advisory solutions that leverage its operator experience, scale and innovation. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, HealthTrust (www.healthtrustpg.com) serves over 1,500 hospitals and health systems, and more than 31,000 other member locations including ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices, long-term care and alternate care sites. On Twitter @healthtrustpg.
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