IHI kicks off new patient safety initiative

Hospitals will try to prevent 5 million medical injuries in the next two years. Meanwhile, a journal article questions how IHI measures results.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Jan. 1/8, 2007.

Flush from the success of persuading more than 3,000 hospitals to implement systems changes aimed at saving 100,000 lives in 18 months, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement last month set out a new and perhaps even more ambitious goal.

Nearly two years after asking hospitals to implement six interventions, the influential Cambridge, Mass., nonprofit group is asking hospitals to carry out an additional six interventions. The dozen combined changes are aimed at preventing 5 million medical injuries over the next two years. IHI estimates that there are 15 million "incidents of harm" every year. The label includes preventable adverse events, medical errors and injuries contributed to by medical care or the absence of indicated care.

The group's new Protecting 5 Million Lives From Harm initiative targets common medical injuries such as pressure ulcers, staph infections and surgical complications. At the same time, IHI officials are asking the 3,100 hospitals that signed up for the 100,000 Lives Campaign to continue implementing that plan's interventions. Those systems changes included deploying rapid response teams at the earliest sign of a patient's decline and preventing central-line infections. All of the hospitals that signed on to the last campaign, which account for more than 75% of U.S. hospital beds, have been carried over to the 5 Million Lives initiative. IHI hopes for a total of 4,000 hospitals.

"If achieved, this would be the biggest improvement in patient safety in modern health care," said IHI President and CEO Donald M. Berwick, MD.