RID’s Success Record
Since its founding in 2003, the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID) has transformed thinking about hospital infections. Here is what RID has accomplished:
- Working closely with media, RID built a groundswell of demand for transparency and improvement. Fourteen years ago, not one state required hospitals to disclose their infection rates. Now 37 states do, and there will be more on the way.
- RID made a compelling business case for infection prevention, showing hospital decision makers that preventing infections makes hospitals more profitable.
- RID went to the White House under George W. Bush and convinced policymakers that Medicare should stop paying hospitals to treat infections that should not have occurred. This change in Medicare reimbursement is having a major impact on hospital priorities.
- The hand sanitizing dispensers you see everywhere are a clear sign of RID’s impact. At one time, doctors and nurses failed to clean their hands before touching a patient half the time, a staggering statistic. Now, hand hygiene rates are vastly improved.
- RID educated hospital and nursing home decision makers about the importance of screening incoming patients for MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Screening is routine in almost half of U.S. hospitals, up from 17% thirteen years ago.
- When Clostridium difficile (C. diff) swept the nation, RID led the response, preparing hospitals to understand the threat. RID nimbly and quickly shifted the emphasis to effective cleaning. C. diff spores linger on bedrails, wheelchairs, over-bed tables, call buttons, and other surfaces. When patients touch these surfaces, they pick up the spores, then touch their own food or their mouth, and ingest the spores. In response to RID’s campaign for better cleaning, even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made its cleaning standards more rigorous.
- RID is educating hospitals about new technologies that will help prevent infection. RID’s Innovative Products Newsletter is sent to the board and key decision makers at every acute care hospital in the U.S.
- This year RID is preparing hospitals and nursing homes to meet a new challenge, CRE (carbapenem resistant Enterococci). In each case, RID has been ahead of the curve, alerting and informing hospitals about the next superbug.
- RID does all this on a shoestring budget, only $400,000 a year. Our overhead is small, but our impact is large and ever growing. We at RID hope you will give us your support. Your money will be spent wisely, saving lives.
RID potentially saves more lives per dollar spent than other any other not for profit. Please support us by making a tax-deductible donation.