New Delhi [India], Sept. 15 : BD India received the FICCI Award for Preventive Care at the 8th Annual Healthcare Excellence Awards.
The flagship program that garnered industry recognition is its Central Line Care Management Program, which focuses on saving lives from hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).
It was recognised for the innovative triad approach: the three Ts of Tracking, Training, and Technology.
This line of working not only minimized infections, but it also shortened patients' length of stay as well as saved money for both patients and healthcare organizations.
"We are honored to receive this recognition from FICCI. This validates our commitment towards clinical practice innovation in today's healthcare scenario. Our commitment, at BD, is to develop a culture of safety not just in device design, but also across the healthcare continuum and provide the safest possible solution to our customers," said Varun Khanna, Managing Director of BD-India.
The FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards aim at felicitating organizations and individuals for their efforts towards operational excellence, innovatively adopting and inventing technologies and processes for India, and improved healthcare delivery.
Supported by the Quality Council of India, they hold a position of prestige, and have emerged as the definitive recognition for contribution to healthcare in the country over the years.
The Preventive Care category asked that entrants be able to demonstrate measurable parameters through which the program had made an impact.
"Attention to simple preventive strategies by healthcare professionals can help us together improve patient outcomes.
Going ahead, we hope to expand the program in scope and impact, especially against the backdrop of the robust healthcare need and demand in the country.
We see this as a part of the company's vision of advancing the world of health," said Vishal Taneja, Business Director at BD-Medical.
Despite surveillance and in-house teaching programs, HAIs continue to be a major concern in most hospitals.
There is a constant challenge of escalating central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rates, catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), surgical site infections (SSI), and multi-drug-resistant organisms (MDRO).
This puts tremendous pressure on the patient, doctors, the medical system, and society as a whole, with the increased disease burden.
Prolonged hospital stays, disability, and mortality are some of the effects of HAIs, besides the mental, social, emotional, and economic burden on the patient and family members.
"The joint effort with BD for the line care management program brought promising results with slow decrease in the unit average CLABSI rates.
The chief drivers of this change were team approach, a continuing education program, and a strong and committed leadership.
Continued surveillance, along with sound infection control programs, not only led to decreased healthcare-associated infections but also better prioritization of resources and efforts to improving medical care.
We strongly suggest that hospitals facing such concerns should get initiated into similar joint ventures wherein audits and corrective actions are taken on a regular basis and work together to culminate into a win-win situation with better delivery of care and a reduction of HAIs," said Dr Amit Kumar Mandal, Director, Pulmonology, Sleep and Critical Care, Fortis Hospital, Mohali.
HAIs affect 7-12 percent of patients admitted in hospitals globally, as per the World Health Organization.
In India, this incidence has been alarmingly pegged at 11-83 percent. The World Health Organisation (WHO) also says that middle and low-income countries have a 2-3-fold higher frequency of ICU-acquired infections than high-income countries.
Newborns have a 3-20 times greater risk of getting HAIs in these countries than in high-income ones. Device-associated infections are said to be 13 times higher than in the US..
Source: ANI
