About the CUSP Method

About the CUSP Method: How To Use the CUSP MethodA number of toolkits are available to help clinical teams adopt the CUSP method to make care safer. Most teams will want to start with the Core CUSP Toolkit to learn key principles of the CUSP method. Once you’ve learned the basics, additional toolkits can help you target certain safety issues in specific settings of care. Henry Ford Hospital Unit Lowers C. diff Infections by 90% Using AHRQ Safety Program https://www.ahrq.gov/news/newsroom/case-studies/202501.html Using AHRQ’s Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP), Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit reduced the incidence of Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infections in its nephrology unit by 90 percent since January 2023. The hospital used the CUSP framework to engage frontline staff and significantly reduce hospital-acquired C. diff, a dangerous and highly contagious infection. Some of these interventions have now been adopted across the 800-bed hospital. CUSP is a method that can help clinical teams make care safer by combining improved teamwork, clinical best practices, and the science of patient safety. The Core CUSP toolkit gives clinical teams the training resources and tools to apply the CUSP method and build their capacity to address patient safety issues. Patients in the 34-bed nephrology unit are vulnerable and at high risk of infection; many need dialysis multiple times each week. Those with end-stage renal disease are twice as likely to develop C. diff than other patients. Using a nurse-driven protocol to verify C. diff in patients with symptoms, the nephrology unit launched a number of interventions in early 2023 to bring down the number of C. diff infections. https://www.ahrq.gov/news/newsroom/case-studies/index.html