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IHI calls for reductions in 5 Million Lives Campaign

Accreditation Connection, December 18, 2006

Healthcare professionals last week vowed to meet the challenge of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) historic campaign to protect patients from 5 million incidents of harm by drastically reducing infections, surgical complications, and pressure sores.

"Five million is a lot of people to reach, but based on the structure of the plan they've outlined, they have given us a good place to start," said Jenee Dixon, LPN, a staff representative with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.

Geoffrey Page, performance improvement coordinator at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, agreed.  "[Although] the 5 Million Lives Campaign is challenging, we feel that to do any less would be a disservice to our patients," Page said.

Donald Berwick, MD, president and CEO of the IHI, announced the 5 Million Lives Campaign to a cheering crowd at the institute's annual national forum on quality care in Orlando, FL. He set a two-year timeline for meeting the goals and encouraged hospitals to launch their own initiatives to improve patient safety.

"No one in healthcare can feel comfortable with the magnitude of infections, adverse drug events, and other complications that hospital patients endure," Berwick told the more than 5,000 people at the forum. "Dozens of organizations and programs are now working to reduce that toll. They deserve encouragement. This campaign joins those efforts, and seeks leverage and scale that our nation has never had before to make care safe -- everywhere."

Specifically, the IHI leader called on his colleagues to:

• Prevent Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection by implementing scientifically proven infection control practices throughout the hospital
• Reduce harm from high-alert medications starting with a focus on anticoagulants, sedatives, narcotics, and insulin
• Reduce surgical complications by implementing the changes in care recommended by the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP)
• Prevent pressure ulcers by using science-based guidelines for prevention of this serious and common complication
• Deliver reliable, evidence-based care for congestive heart failure to reduce readmissions
• Get boards involved by defining and spreading new and leveraged processes for hospital boards of directors, so that they can become far more effective in accelerating the improvement of care.

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