Injection Safety: Insurance Stakeholders Meeting – December 15, 2011

Meeting Overview

On Thursday, December 15th, 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hosted a one-day meeting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia focused on a novel approach to healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the potential roles of professional liability insurers, risk managers, and other stakeholders outside of traditional public health partners in ensuring that healthcare delivery always meets minimum expectations relating to worker protections, injection safety and other basic infection control expectations.

The meeting provided a forum for:

• CDC to educate stakeholders about the negative consequences of unsafe injection practices and to describe CDC prevention guidelines’ influence on the standard of care. and to describe increasing recognition of pertinent CDC prevention guidelines as standards of care
• Stakeholders to share their professional experiences and discuss current HAI prevention efforts and model incentive programs, especially as these relate to safe injection practices
• CDC and stakeholders to discuss opportunities to influence practice through various forms of engagement with the insurance industry

A variety of perspectives were shared during the day by presenters and discussants that included representatives from CDC, HONOReform Foundation, professional liability insurers, risk managers, legal experts, state health departments, professional groups, product manufacturers, and health care consultants.
Discussion centered on how to build the business case for supporting injection safety and HAI prevention in the risk management and professional liability insurer environment. Insurance companies’ strong interests in preventing patient harm and avoiding liability were cited. From malpractice insurers and risk managers to third-party payers, all can help advance both worker and patient safety by promoting adherence to minimum expectations for safe care.
Feedback gathered during discussions will be used in ongoing work involving CDC, the CDC Foundation and the Safe Injection Practices Coalition to improve the reach and impact of current safe injection practices promotion efforts.

Meeting Participants:

• AANA Insurance Group
• American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
• American Society for Healthcare Risk Management
• Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. (APIC)
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
• B&D Consulting
• Becton Dickenson and Company (BD)
• CDC Foundation
• Chartis Insurance
• CNA HealthPro
• Covidien
• Darwin/AWAC
• FOJP Service Corporation
• HONOReform
• Institute for Safe Medication Practices
• Loma Linda University Shared Services
• MarkelCorp
• Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company
• MedPro
• MEDRAD
• Nevada Department of Health
• New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
• New York State Department of Health
• Premier Insurance Management Services, Inc.
• Premier Safety Institute
• Princeton Insurance
• RiskNomics, LLC
• Southern Nevada Health District
• The Margolin Group
• Veteran’s Health Administration