Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP)

Summary

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than 2 million health care-acquired infections occur in U.S. hospitals each year and approximately 99,000 patients who get these infections die as a result. HAIs also result in $4.5 billion in excess health care costs annually. The AHA's Health Resources & Educational Trust, through a contract with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and in partnership with the Johns Hopkins University Quality and Safety Research Group and the Keystone Center for Patient Safety and Quality of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, are implementing a nationwide patient safety program proven to dramatically reduce certain health care-acquired infections. Through September 2012, AHRQ will support the national implementation of an educational and technical initiative using the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program and interventions to prevent central line-associated blood stream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections. As of July 2010, 1,100 hospital units in 30 states are participating in CUSP.

For more information, visit HRET's CUSP page.

CUSP's Five Steps of Safety
Stop CAUTI
Stop BSI

CUSP's Five Steps of Safety

Although CUSP comprises five steps, the program is a continuous process designed to incorporate an ongoing evidence-based patient safety infrastructure into an existing unit. The five steps include:

1. Educate Staff on the Science of Safety
2. Identify Defects
3. Engage Executives
4. Learn from Defects
5. Implement Teamwork Tool

Stop CAUTI

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are the most common type of hospital acquired infection in U.S. hospitals, accounting for 35 percent of all such infections and leading to an estimated 8,200 deaths annually. However, the vast majority of CAUTIs are preventable. HRET, through a contract with AHRQ, and in partnership with the JHU QSRG, the MHA Keystone, and investigators from the University of Michigan are implementing a patient safety program to dramatically reduce CAUTI nationwide. The key project goals for this AHRQ funded national project to implement CUSP are as follows:

1. Reduce mean CAUTI rates in participating ICUs and other clinical units by 25 percent over two years
2. To disseminate CUSP educational modules to improve patient safety

The first cohort for this project will launch in September 2010. A second cohort will launch in January 2011.

Stop BSI

An estimated 250,000 CLABSIs occur in hospitals each year, and as many as 62,000 patients who get these infections die as a result. HRET, through a contract with the AHRQ, and in partnership with JHU QSRG and MHA Keystone are implementing a patient safety program to prevent CLABSI nationwide. This project, the first of its kind in size and scope, aims to eliminate harm that has been, until now, considered an inevitable circumstance of health care.