Dec. 2006

ILLINOIS HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION JOINS INSTITUTE FOR HEALTHCARE IMPROVEMENT CAMPAIGN TO REDUCE PATIENT HARM AND SAVE LIVES


(Naperville) – The Illinois Hospital Association (IHA) today announced that it has joined the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) 5 Million Lives Campaign to reduce patient harm and save lives and will serve as the lead hospital organization in Illinois for the campaign. The new campaign is aimed at building on the success of IHI’s 18-month 100,000 Lives Campaign that promoted saving lives in hospitals through the implementation of proven, evidence-based practices and procedures. The 5 Million Lives Campaign was unveiled today at IHI’s 18th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care in Orlando, FL.

“The Illinois Hospital Association is pleased to join this important initiative to improve patient care,” said IHA President Ken Robbins. “The quality improvement areas targeted by IHI are aligned with the goals and initiatives of the association and its members, especially the goal to reduce and eliminate MRSA. We are excited about the opportunity to work with IHI to help hospitals across the state access a wealth of information and resources that IHI provides at no charge to participants.”  

“By acting as a field office in our new campaign, the Illinois Hospital Association is making a wonderful contribution to our national learning network and to the crucial work of facilities in Illinois to reduce harm,” said Dr. Donald Berwick, President and CEO of IHI. “The Association’s leadership in seeking to radically reduce MRSA infections and other forms of patient harm will set an important example for the rest of the country, and it will significantly deepen our knowledge. We are so pleased to have IHA –
and the hospitals of Illinois – with us as we move forward.”

IHI defines “medical harm” as unintended physical injury resulting from or contributed to by medical care (including the absence of indicated medical treatment) that requires additional monitoring, treatment or hospitalization or that results in death.

Hospitals participating in the 5 Million Lives Campaign commit to implement some or all of the following six quality improvements:

·    Prevent Methicillin-resident Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection – through basic changes in infection control processes throughout the hospital;

·    Reduce harm from high-risk medications – starting with a focus on anticoagulants, sedatives, narcotics and insulin;

·    Reduce surgical complications – by reliably implementing the changes in care recommended by the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP);

·    Reduce pressure ulcers – by reliably using science-based guidelines for prevention of this serious and common complication;

·    Deliver reliable, evidence-based care for congestive heart failure – to reduce readmissions; and,

·    Get Boards on board – by defining and spreading new and leveraged processes for hospitals’ boards of directors, so that they can become more effective in accelerating the improvement of care.

The camoaign will also continue to offer support to hospitals as they introduce and sustain their work on the six interventions from the 100,000 Lives Campaign, which already includes more than 3,100 hospitals nationally and nearly 70 in Illinois

For more information on the 5 Million Lives Campaign, visit www.ihi.org. For more information about the Illinois Hospital Association’s quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, see www.ihatoday.org/issues/quality and www.ihatoday.org/issues/safety.

The Illinois Hospital Association, with offices in Naperville and Springfield, represents 200 hospitals and health systems and the patients and communities they serve. For more information, see IHA’s web site, www.ihatoday.org.