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IHI announces new "5 Million Lives" campaign

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, December 13, 2006

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The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has launched its latest national initiave, called the "5 Million Lives" campaign. This effort follows the successful "100,000 Lives" campaign, which prevented the deaths of 122,000 inpatients from 3,100 hospitals within 18 months, according to the IHI. The 5 Million Lives campaign is intended to prevent instances of medical harm to 5 million inpatients over the next two years.

The IHI has outlined 12 improvements in care that will help hospitals around the country achieve the goal of preventing five million inpatient injuries. Six of these improvements were used in the 100,000 Lives campaign and six are new. Some of the newer goals include: Preventing the spread of MRSA within hospitals, reducing harm from high-alert medications, and preventing pressure ulcers by using specific guidelines. The IHI hopes to enlist 4,000 hospitals in the effort.

According to the IHI, there are 40,000 incidents of harm that occur each day in the nation's hospitals. This means that 15 million people each year who seek treatment from a hospital are victims of medical harm. Medical harm has been defined as "unintended physical injury resulting from or contributed to by medical care (including the absence of indicated medical treatment) that requires additional monitoring, treatment or hospitalization, or results in death," according to the IHI.

To see the 12 improvements, view the full press release, and look at the IHI's page devoted to its new campaign, please click here.

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