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New Initiative Seeks Safer Health Care for Newborn Babies and Mothers Giving Birth in Michigan Hospitals

Posted on: Monday, 22 September 2008, 12:00 CDT

DEARBORN, Mich., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality today launched a new initiative to make health care safer for mothers giving birth and their newborn babies in Michigan hospitals.

The initiative, called MHA Keystone: Obstetrics, is modeled after the MHA Keystone Center's Keystone: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patient safety program. Since its launch in 2004, MHA Keystone: ICU has significantly improved safety and reduced errors in Michigan hospital intensive care units, saving more than 1,700 lives and $246 million. MHA Keystone: ICU was featured in The New England Journal of Medicine and state and national media, and this year was adopted by the World Health Organization as a model program to reduce medical errors in nations across the globe.

MHA Keystone: Obstetrics is being piloted at 13 Michigan hospitals, with financial assistance from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM). After the one-year pilot period, interventions that demonstrate they improve safety and reduce errors will be offered in a statewide collaborative to all 146 nonprofit community hospitals in Michigan. More than 120,000 babies are born each year in Michigan, state data show.

"As a result of the MHA Keystone Center, Michigan hospital ICUs are now among the safest in the nation and world. With MHA Keystone: Obstetrics we intend to advance similar health and safety improvements for mothers giving birth and newborns in Michigan hospitals," MHA President Spencer Johnson said at a news conference today at Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center in Dearborn, one of the lead hospitals in the pilot.

"Today we are joining with a large number of hospitals to improve safety for mothers and infants in our state," said Daniel J. Loepp, BCBSM president and CEO. "Since Blue Cross was founded nearly 70 years ago, we have worked with hospitals to deliver the best care possible. We all share common goals for Michigan -- we all want safe, high-quality patient care and affordable coverage for our residents."

MHA Keystone: Obstetrics will integrate evidence-based clinical and science-of-safety interventions that, together, support a culture of safety. Strategies to prevent fetal and maternal harm due to complications of labor induction, fetal assessment, and management of second-stage labor will be stressed. Universal electronic fetal monitoring language will also be a key component of the collaborative.

"We are honored to lead the way in making health care safer for new mothers and their babies," said Brian Connolly, president and CEO of Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., in Dearborn. "Through the MHA Keystone Center, Michigan hospitals are implementing groundbreaking and lifesaving interventions to reduce medical errors and health care costs, and improve the quality of patient care delivered at the bedside. Michigan hospitals are truly leading the nation in proactive actions to make health care safer, and Oakwood is proud of our role in helping launch this prestigious program."

Headquartered in Lansing, Michigan, the MHA Keystone Center was founded by Michigan hospitals and the MHA in 2003. The center combines state and national patient safety experts and multiple hospitals and health systems working together in collaborative programs that identify best practices and evidence-based medicine to improve patient safety and health care quality and to reduce medical errors. The collaboratives incorporate culture change and the use of various checklists to standardize procedures, ensuring consistent, quality care and avoiding oversights that can lead to patient harm.

In addition to its financial support of current and future initiatives, BCBSM has also supported earlier MHA Keystone Center initiatives to reduce hospital-associated and surgical infections.

MHA Keystone: Obstetrics is the newest patient safety program launched by the MHA Keystone Center. In the coming weeks, the center will be announcing another new patient safety initiative that has the potential to make health care safer for hundreds of thousands of Michigan hospital patients.

Michigan Hospitals Participating in the MHA Keystone: Obstetrics Pilot Project

The following 13 Michigan hospitals are participating in the one-year pilot of the MHA Keystone Center's Obstetrics initiative. The goal of MHA Keystone: Obstetrics is to eliminate medical harm to mothers giving birth and their newborn babies in Michigan hospitals.

Allegiance Health, Jackson Munson Medical Center, Traverse City Bronson Healthcare Group, Inc., Northern Michigan Regional Kalamazoo Hospital, Petoskey Covenant Medical Center, Inc., Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., Dearborn Saginaw Crittenton Hospital Medical Port Huron Hospital Center, Rochester Hills Lakeland Regional Medical Sparrow Hospital, Lansing Center, St. Joseph Mercy Memorial Hospital System, Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids Monroe MidMichigan Medical Center, Midland The MHA Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality

The MHA Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality was created in March 2003 as a nonprofit division of the MHA Health Foundation. The MHA Keystone Center brings together hospitals, national experts and best-practice evidence to improve patient safety by addressing the quality of health care delivery at the bedside. Through the MHA Keystone Center, Michigan hospitals have voluntarily improved the safety and quality of health care through the application of the scientific method and the implementation of evidence-based best practices that are saving lives and reducing costs. Headquartered in Lansing, Michigan, the MHA Keystone Center has been funded to date by MHA-member hospitals, federal and state grants, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. In addition to MHA Keystone: Obstetrics, the MHA Keystone Center has launched the following patient safety programs to date:

-- Keystone: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (2003) to prevent bloodstream infection and ventilator-associated pneumonia in hospital intensive care units.

-- Keystone: Gift of Life (2004) to enable hospitals and organ procurement specialists to share best practices to increase organ donations in Michigan.

-- Keystone: Hospital-Associated Infections (HAI) (2007) to prevent infections in other areas of the hospital.

Keystone: Surgery (2007) to prevent surgical-site infections and preventable complications from surgery.

Please visit http://www.mhakeystonecenter.org/ for more information.

Michigan Health & Hospital Association

CONTACT: Lori Latham of MHA, +1-517-703-8605, or cell, +1-517-881-7911,or Paula Rivera-Kerr of Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., +1-313-791-4817, or HelenStojic of BCBSM, +1-313-225-8113

Web site: http://www.mhakeystonecenter.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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