Boone County Hospital (BCH) is continually looking for ways to improve patient safety. The hospital’s involvement in the 100,000 Lives Campaign was successful and will now implement processes from the 5 Million Lives Campaign. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is asking hospitals to improve the care they provide in order to protect patients from five million incidents of medical harm over a 24 month period, ending December 9, 2008. It represents a continuation of the largest improvement effort undertaken in recent history by the health care industry. BCH has formed a Patient Safety Council that will direct patient safety efforts and focus on the 5 Million Lives Campaign. The campaign platform consists of: reducing surgical complications, preventing harm from high alert medications, preventing MRSA infections, reducing readmissions from congestive heart failure, preventing pressure from ulcers and getting Boards on board.
The 5 Million Lives Campaign builds upon the success of the 100,000 Lives Campaign, in which 3,100 participating hospitals reduced inpatient deaths by an estimated 122,000 in 18 months through overall improvement in care. The hope for this campaign is to enroll even more hospitals than participated in the previous campaign. |