Mid-Atlantic Hospital Safety Initiative Sets Goal of Saving Thousands of Lives
CareFirst-Funded Partnership with the Delmarva Foundation Underwrites One of the Nation's Largest Health Care Quality Improvement Efforts
The Situation
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has enlisted thousands of hospitals nationally in its 100,000 Lives Campaign. The national initiative has a goal of implementing six proven hospital practices designed to save 100,000 Lives by June 2006 – including 4,000 lives in the Mid-Atlantic region alone.
The 100,000 Lives and Beyond Collaborative in which CareFirst has partnered with the Delmarva Foundation will introduce these life-saving measures to hospital intensive care units and operating rooms throughout the region. The program was launched with a conference in Washington, D.C. in October, 2005.
The Program
The 100,000 Lives and Beyond Collaborative focuses on six proven, life-saving care changes. Intensive team workshops and local hospital interventions over the 18 months of the program will help hospitals implement changes designed to:
- Empower any hospital staff member at any level to deploy rapid response teams at the first sign of a patient in distress;
- Prevent adverse drug events by requiring review of medications to ensure that a patient receives the right dosage of the right medicine at admission, discharge and before transfer;
- Prevent catheter-related bloodstream infections by consistently delivering a five-part "bundle" of care, including measures such as improved hand hygiene;
- Prevent surgical site infections by reliably delivering the correct antibiotics, maintaining patient glucose levels and avoiding shaving hair at the surgical site; and
- Prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia by implementing five specific steps, including measures as simple as elevating the head of the hospital bed by 30 degrees.
CareFirst is contributing $450,000 to fund the program.
