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NY Hospitals Join Campaign to Improve Patient Care

Posted on: Monday, 21 November 2005, 03:02 CST

By Anonymous

Nearly 90 percent of New York states hospitals have signed on to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives Campaign to implement proven health-care techniques to ensure better results for patients, according to the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS).

Dr. Donald Berwick, president and chief executive officer of' the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), arrived in New York City to tour hospitals as part of a national bus tour that began in Boston and will work its way to Seattle.

"More than 170 New York hospitals, including 36 in New York City, have joined the campaign, which is a winning formula for hospitals, doctors, nurses and, most importantly, the patients we all serve," said Daudel Sisto, president of HANYS. "IHI is providing national leadership and New York's more than 200 hospitals are leading the way across the state, implementing practice changes that will dramatically improve patient care."

Programs at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City that reduce medication errors and prevent blood and ventilator-associated infections are representative of the type, of innovations that hospitals are instituting to improve patient care.

Hospitals participating in the campaign commit to implementing a series of evidence-based quality improvement changes in one or more of six practice areas desiged to increase patient safety and reduce adverse outcomes for patients.

"The enthusiasm of hospitals and health-care organizations for the campaign is more than we ever anticipated," Berwick said. "The fact that half of all U.S. acute-care hospitals, including an extraordinary 90 percent in New York State, have enrolled shows that health-care providers throughout the country share IHI's sense of urgency to rid the system of its defects. With this kind of participation, we are confident that the campaign's potential to improve health care is limitless."

The six practice areas targeted in the campaign are:

* Deployment of rapid response teams at the first sign of patient decline;

*Delivering evidence-based care for acute myocardial infarction;

* Preventing adverse drug events through medication reconciliation;

*Preventing central line infections through a series of steps called the "Central Line Bundle."

*Preventing surgical site infections by implementing a series of steps, including "right time" delivery of antibiotics; and

* Preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia through implementation of the "Ventilator Bundle."

"As we approach six years since the Institute of Medicine released its report on medial errors, it is heartening to see efforts like the IHI 100K lives Campaign gain so much traction in the New York state hospital community," said Arthur Levin, director of the Center for Medical Consumers. "When hospitals take ownership of the safety problem and demonstrate a willingness to do whatever it takes to correct life-threatening problems, that is good news for all New Yorkers. More needs to be done, but this is a step in the right direction."

Metropolitan Hospital Center is part of New York City's Health and Hospitals Corp., a public hospital system that has embraced the campaign to further improve health-care quality and patient safety Each hospital in the system is actively working to reduce medication errors through medication reconciliation, and to prevent blood infections and infections associated with ventilator use. HHC hospitals also took steps to reduce surgical site infections. The system's clinical leadership team is meeting to review progress and to look for additional ways of taking preventive steps. "IHI's 100K Campaign fits well within HHC's goals for patient safety," said Alan D. Aviles, acting president of the New York Health and Hospitals Corp. "Our work on reducing medication errors began with system- wide implementation of computerized physician order entry, and we continue to work on making medication administration as safe as possible, bringing significant information technology resources to support safety and quality. I am proud of the work our facilities are engaged in to implement the interventions highlighted by IHI. We will continue to push these efforts further and further to ensure the safest possible environment for our patients."

HANYS serves as the coordinator of all IHI initiatives throughout New York state.

Copyright Westfair Communications Oct 17, 2005

Source: Westchester County Business Journal

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