Hospitals surpass pre-pandemic quality outcomes: AHA, Vizient

Health systems have a lower risk of patient mortality, fewer hospital acquired infections, and are performing more cancer screenings in 2024 than prior to the pandemic, according to a new report from the American Hospital Association and Vizient, a group purchasing and consulting organization. 

The study, which uses data from Vizient’s clinical database, found that acute care hospitals have made significant improvements on their safety and quality measure performance over the past several years — despite dealing with sicker, more complex patient populations. Health systems’ progress on reducing infections and adverse patient outcomes was also  demonstrated through improved safety grades this spring from the Leapfrog Group.

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“We’ve heard the narrative that we lost ground during the pandemic and we still haven't gotten back to those levels,” said Dr. Chris DeRienzo, chief physician executive at the AHA. “This evidence shows that’s not true.”

On the contrary, many health systems have increased efforts to build stronger infection control teams and better pathways for identifying sepsis and other life-threatening conditions, DeRienzo said. Compared with 2019, patient acuity has increased 3% in 2024 as hospitals treat patients with more severe conditions and complicated illnesses, according to the report.

At the same time, hospitals’ rates of central line infections and urinary tract infections are lower than they were before the onset of COVID-19. Health systems have also seen a more than 60% increase in breast, colon and cervical cancer screenings as the recommended age ranges and risk factors for testing have expanded.

In the first quarter of 2024, an AHA analysis of Vizient data found that hospitalized patients had a 22% lower risk of mortality compared with patients in 2019. This indicates that more individuals are surviving conditions that otherwise would be expected to be fatal, DeRienzo said.

MaineGeneral Health, a community health system based in Augusta, Maine, attributed its improvements on infection rates and error prevention since the start of the pandemic to the stabilization and thorough training of its workforce. 

The system made it a point to reduce its reliance on travel nurses, implement more standardized processes for patient care and reward clinicians for speaking up about potential safety issues, said Dr. Steven Diaz, the system's chief medical officer.  

Even with those changes and positive results in the form of better patient outcomes, hospitals’ work in quality improvement is never done, Diaz said. 

“There's more procedures, more medications, more things we can do for patients to try to help them, and we need to never let our guard down,” he said. “We always have to be vigilant.”