Catheters with a Controlled-Release System for Delivery of Antimicrobial Silver Ions

摘要

Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) have received significant attention in the past few years, in particular from Congress. In 2007 the Secretary of Health and Human Services announced changes to the Medicare payment system that go into effect October 1, 20081. Due to these changes, Medicare will not reimburse hospitals for eight secondary conditions deemed preventable. This will result in significant reduction of income for hospitals - in some cases 40% of the past payments - for these preventable conditions~2. Nearly half of the HAIs are catheter related: 36% being urinary tract infections and 11 % being blood stream infections~4. Other categories include pneumonia and surgical site infections.