Helping make hospitals safer: Patient safety campaign gets it right

The AMA is urging physicians to get involved in a hospital-based effort to prevent 100,000 unintended deaths.

Editorial. March 14, 2005.

One preventable medical error is one too many. But even in our nation's high-caliber health system, mistakes do occur. Recognizing that, the American Medical Association has dedicated itself to many programs and initiatives aimed at improving quality.

One of the latest is the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's "100k Lives Campaign." The AMA is a partner in this effort alongside other leading private- and public-sector health care organizations.

The plan is ambitious: Enlist 1,500 to 2,000 hospitals to reduce the number of unintended deaths by 100,000 over the course of 18 months, ending in June 2006, and maintain this progress each year thereafter. The facilities would accomplish this by implementing some or all of six best practices proven to reduce patient harm and death.

These interventions are: Deploying rapid-response teams at the first sign of patient decline; delivering evidence-based care for patients with acute myocardial infarction; implementing medication reconciliation -- listing and evaluating all of a patient's drugs to prevent adverse events; and using science-based methods to prevent central line infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia and surgical site infections.

Participating hospitals agree to measure their results with monthly mortality data reported on a quarterly basis. Their findings will be made public in the aggregate.

The initiative attacks the problem in the best of ways -- by focusing on system improvements based on evidence. It does not rely on the blame-and-shame mentality that is so detrimental to patient safety and quality improvement.