www.businesswire.com/news/home…

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A new analysis by Press Ganey finds that safety performance declined across the entire healthcare industry in 2020. These insights indicate a reversal in harm rates that, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, had shown improvement.

“Hospitals are in survival mode because of the virus, and this has driven unprecedented levels of burnout, turnover and staffing gaps” Tweet this Press Ganey reviewed patient outcome data from its National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI®) submitted by 11,325 units from more than 1,575 U.S. hospitals. The findings showed that COVID-19’s stress on the healthcare industry contributed to a worsening of existing safety event rates such as falls, pressure ulcers and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs).

“Hospitals are in survival mode because of the virus, and this has driven unprecedented levels of burnout, turnover and staffing gaps,” said Jeff Doucette, chief nursing officer, Press Ganey. “Our healthcare workers must give their energy and almost singular focus to COVID-19, and the ripple effect has exacerbated safety lapses and drift in hospitals.”

As a result, safety culture has suffered—and safety events have increased:

Since the onset of COVID-19, patient safety events increased in all seven types of units measured in NDNQI®: adult critical care, medical, step-down, high quality, moderate acuity, surgical and med-surg. Inpatient falls increased across medical, step down, surgical and med-surg units throughout the duration of 2020. Stage 2 hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPI) increased across all seven unit types in Q4 2020. CLABSI rates increased across high quality and moderate acuity units from Q2 through Q4 2020.