Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I AM speaking with Dr. Chris Di Rienzo, chief physician, executive and senior vice president at the American Hospital Association. Dr. D'Rienzo, thank you so much, sir, for taking some time for me. I really do appreciate it.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: It is a privilege. Thank you for having us.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Well, it's, it's great to have you here and especially because, you know, we've got some, some good news to share, at least according to a new report by the American Hospital association, it shows that hospital patients are even safer today than they were in 2019. So pre pandemic.
First of all, just tell me about this report, kind of give me the top line of what it found.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Well, you already hit the top line there. Patients who are hospitalized today, and by today, I mean as of the first quarter of 2024, so very, very recent data, and were even safer than they were pre pandemic. And that held true across multiple crucial measures of patient safety. To be clear, though, these aren't measures that the AHA takes in any way, shape or form. We don't, you know, go out and measure hospitals. We worked with a company called Vizient, and they work with thousands of hospitals across the country. So we didn't know what this data was going to show when they went out and they did the analysis. And we were excited that it showed what we, we knew from our members was likely to be true. And that's these improvement efforts continued through the pandemic and they continue today.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Very good. So what were some of the, maybe the criteria that were used to make these conclusions? Maybe some of the data that was found to show, oh, you know, safety really did improve in this area or that, that.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Well, when you go into the report, there are a couple of key top line measures, the most important of which is risk of mortality. And we know that hospitalized patients are sick, and the report actually shows that patients are even sicker today than they were in 2019, when you look at the amount of resources we need to care for them. But despite that increase in acuity or increase in sickness, the risk of mortality for a hospitalized patient in the United States has gone down more than 20% compared to the end of 2019. That means that if you took that analysis and you broadcast it over the entire population of hospitalized Americans on The order of 200,000 people who were hospitalized in the 12 months from mid 23 to the beginning of 24, 200,000 had a second chance at life, whereas just five years ago the seriousness of their illness would have led to death.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Wow. Just very, very good news. On that front, of course. And you know, what kind of led to this improvement in inpatient outcomes? I mean, obviously, I don't necessarily think we can kind of point to any one thing, just at least that's my sort of feeling here. But tell me, can we point to any one thing or were there a number of things that maybe perhaps led to this improvement?
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Once again, you are spot on. I would point to two things. The twin engine impact of innovation and a drive to improve. I was the chief medical officer of a health system in North Carolina during the pandemic, and I knew that even though we were stretched to try to serve our community with, you know, many, many thousands of patients with a new disease no one had ever treated, society was nut people. These two powerful engines, the drive to improve every single day, and our continuous need to innovate within healthcare were still going. So it was, it was truly no surpr for me to see nationally that hospitals large and small. This study covered 49 states in the District of Columbia. What I saw at home in North Carolina was true in hospital after hospital after hospital nationwide.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Wow. And it just seems to me that the old saying still rings true, that necessity is the mother of invention, I guess, right? Because had we not had this pandemic, this once in a century event that happened, who knows what the situation might be? Of course, we would hope, the hope that there would be improvements, obviously in health care in general, just over time, going forward. But with this pandemic, does that sort of.
I don't know if it's the right way to ask this, but I'll ask it anyway. Is this surprising to you that something like a pandemic, the order of which we had not seen in our lifetimes, is the thing that kind of led to this improvement in healthcare and healthcare outcome outcomes?
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Well, I think the pandemic exacerbated many underlying trends that were already present in society. This one happens to be a good one. If you go back to the evidence, things like risk of mortality have been improving for decades. You look at my specialty of neonatology, for example, in the 1960s, a baby who was born just five or six weeks premature, and there was a baby born who was the President's son. President John F. Kennedy had a preemie in the 1960s, 60s who died just a couple of days after birth. Today, through that combined powerful impact of innovation and the drive to improve, babies who are born five or six weeks early have a 99.9999% chance of survival. And we're saving Babies now who were born, you know, 15, 16, 17 weeks before they were due. So when I look at this evidence, to me, it reinforces what I know to be true in my years as a physician and working in healthcare. And that's this ongoing, relentless drive to improve did not stop the pandemic. Couldn't stop it. What I am excited about, though, is because we all walked through this together. The pandemic has given us an opportunity to show your listeners and people across the country what it really looks like inside hospitals to make this happen every single day. Just a little bit better.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And that is the goal, just getting better day by day. And of course, we give our thanks to you, all of the healthcare workers out there at hospitals across the country for doing the work that you do each and every day to save lives and improve quality of life for folks out there. Well, doctor, just about time for us to wrap things up here. But anything else that you wanted to add or maybe some resources for our listeners where they could go for some more information on these numbers here?
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Two quick closing notes. First, if you wanted to read more about the numbers, Obviously our website, aha.org has it linked all over the place. But you lifted up the most important thing. And I want to be really clear on this. This report is not, you know, success of AHA or even successor of Vizient, the folks who measure it. This report is a celebration of the work that our healthcare workforce does day in, day out, at 11 o'clock at night, at 2 o'clock in the morning, on holidays, on weekends.
This kind of outcomes and the outcomes cross mortality and infection, you name it. These kinds of outcomes don't happen by chance. They happen because of the dedication of millions of people working in hospitals across country to serve their communities and want to get better every day. And so I will share my gratitude, especially this time of year, for all the work that they do. It really is a pillar of American healthcare.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Definitely. So. Well, Dr. Chris DiRienzo is the chief physician, executive and Senior Vice president at the AHA, the American Hospital Association. Dr. D'Rienzo, thank you so much, sir, for taking some time for me. Really do appreciate it.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: It was a real privilege. Thank you.
