A leader in clinical excellence

As the nation's largest private provider of healthcare, HCA Healthcare's scale enables us to deliver great outcomes for our patients, provide superior nursing care and be a preferred place for physicians to practice medicine in 43 distinct markets. Our pursuit of insights and care advances based on the knowledge and data we gain from approximately 30 million patient encounters a year enables us to move healthcare forward. In recent years, our proprietary research and trials have enhanced our clinical capabilities to drive down incidences of blood stream infections (including MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), maternal mortality, infant mortality and NICU admission, just to name a few.

For more than a decade, HCA Healthcare has been a leader in the national effort to reduce healthcare-associated infections and provide a safer hospital environment for our patients.

As of March 2019, we are thrilled to share the news that a companion study to 2013's REDUCE MRSA, known as the Active Bathing to Eliminate Infection, or ABATE, Trial, has been published in The Lancet.

While the REDUCE MRSA trial focused on ICU patients, The ABATE Infection Trial focused on patients outside the ICU. Conducted exclusively at affiliate hospitals over a 21 month period, the study identifies that a nasal infection-control technique and patient bathing with chlorhexidine drastically reduces bloodstream infections in non-ICU patients with devices by 31 percent, and reduces infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria by 40 percent.

Non-ICU patients with devices — such as central venous catheters, midline catheters, and lumber drains — saw great benefit from the chlorhexidine bathing and nasal application of the antibiotic mupirocin.

The trial was conducted at 53 HCA Healthcare hospitals, engaging 330,000 patients in 194 non-ICU units.

"This reflects HCA Healthcare's commitment to be a true learning healthcare system," said Dr. Jonathan B. Perlin, HCA Healthcare's president, clinical services, and chief medical officer and one of the study's authors. "We use the knowledge we capture from delivering care to millions of patients a year for continuous improvement and innovation, not only to fuel our own quality improvement efforts but also to solve vexing societal challenges such as infection prevention."

The ABATE Infection trial is part of a national strategy to reduce HAIs. The study was conducted through a longstanding collaboration amongst HCA Healthcare, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, the University of California Irvine, and Rush University. The ABATE Trial was funded by the National Institutes of Health with contributed effort from HCA Healthcare.

The study, conducted in "real-world" conditions across community hospitals nationwide, demonstrates the reach of the healthcare field's largest system for analyzing clinical data. Believing in the power of our learning health system, we will continue to fight for and find effective ways to protect our patients from infection.