Additional evidence emerged in September to document the nation’s patient safety breakthrough in reducing the toll of central line-associated bloodstream infections in hospital intensive care units.

More than 1,100 hospitals in 44 states participated in a federally funded initiative using an evidence-based tool kit that incorporates standardized checklists. They slashed central-line infections by 40% over four years. The overall infection rate among hospitals in the project fell from 1.903 infections for every 1,000 days patients have a central line inserted to a rate of 1.137 per 1,000 days.

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Medicare’s 2008 policy of denying extra payment for catheter-associated urinary tract infections is having virtually no impact on hospital finances, suggests a study published Sept. 4 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

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State laws allowing taxpayers who serve as living organ donors to write off some of the costs involved have had no impact on donation rates, said a study in the August issue of American Journal of Transplantation.

Since 2004, 16 states have enacted legislation giving living organ donors tax breaks. Fifteen of those states let living donors deduct up to $10,000 from their taxable income. The other state, Idaho, gives living organ donors a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donation-related expenses up to $5,000.

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An evidence-based video that reviews the pros and cons of back surgery to treat a herniated disk can help patients learn more about their condition and make medical decisions in line with their goals and preferences, said a study published Aug. 16 in Spine.

The 38-minute DVD was part of a tool known as a patient decision aid. These are videos, booklets and other materials designed to supplement face-to-face physician counseling on complex medical choices. The tools encourage patients to interpret the best available evidence in light of their care goals and often include stories from other patients to provide meaningful context about likely outcomes.

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Nearly three-quarters of patients say they are concerned about the potential for medical errors, according to a poll that sheds light on public perceptions of patient safety.

Three in 10 patients said they had experience with a medical error, either personally or through a close friend or family member. Twenty-one percent reported having been misdiagnosed by a physician, said the Wolters Kluwer Health survey of 1,000 American adults released Aug. 15. Wolters Kluwer is a Philadelphia-based publisher of medical journals and maker of point-of-care clinical software.

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Hospitals and other imaging facilities across the nation are employing new scanning technology and protocols to reduce and track the radiation doses delivered to patients during imaging studies. The developing trend joins ongoing efforts to help physicians and patients rethink when to opt for advanced imaging tests.

More than two dozen U.S. hospitals have adopted a lower-dose method of reconstructing the images obtained through computed tomography. The technology, marketed as Veo and launched by General Electric Co. subsidiary GE Healthcare in December 2011, can help capture a chest CT scan that delivers virtually the same radiation dose as a two-view chest x-ray. Older CT scanning technology sometimes delivers as much as 50 times the radiation dose of an x-ray.

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