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Of the many success stories we've experienced over the past few years at Catholic Health East, one of our most impressive efforts has been the incredible strides that have been made in improving quality and patient safety system-wide. Thanks to the hard work of our Patient Safety Collaborative Team Leaders and advisory group, supported by Diane Denny and Dr. Tom Garthwaite, so much has been accomplished since we initiated our Patient Safety Collaborative nearly two years ago. We aligned our work with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives Campaign. Designated as a campaign "node", the CHE System Office focused on communicating and sharing campaign information, learnings, and best practices among our RHCs/JOAs and the IHI. The interventions upon which we focused included: deploying Rapid Response teams; improving care for acute myocardial infarction; preventing adverse drug events; reducing surgical site infections; preventing central line infections; and preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia. Through implementation and adherence to these patient safety initiatives, CHE hospitals' collective efforts succeeded in saving an additional four lives per thousand patients…DOUBLE our 100,000 Lives Campaign goal. And several CHE facilities have stepped up to serve as "mentors" for others who may need reinforcement The IHI's national patient safety campaign has now morphed into the 5 Million Lives Campaign, an initiative focused on protecting patients from five million incidents of medical harm over the next two years (December 2006 - December 2008). CHE's commitment to patient safety is steadfast as we remain heavily involved in this campaign. In addition to sustaining improvements around the six original interventions, our facilities will adopt practices intended to:
As the campaign spreads, so too will our efforts as we utilize multiple venues for sharing best practices. Work related to the heart failure, surgical care improvement and high alert medications initiatives will be embedded within the work of CHE's Acute Care Quality and Patient Safety Council; work specific to MRSA and pressure ulcers will be addressed in CHE virtual learning communities currently under construction; and efforts related to the Board's role in quality will take place with leaders across CHE in conversations with local and System boards. In addition to the 5 Million Lives Campaign, CHE has initiated an Emergency Department Collaborative, with the goal of—by year end—achieving breakthrough improvement in the quality of care and service delivered to ED patients throughout the System. The ED Collaborative, which will bring together team leaders for the first time in April, seeks to improve patient flow in the ED to reduce operational cycle time, reduce clinical cycle time and ensure the reliable application of appropriate care, increase safety, improve patient satisfaction, improve teamwork and staff satisfaction, and improve cost outcomes. We are excited about our past achievements in improving quality and patient safety, and we look forward to the challenge of building upon these successes and to continue to strive to be even better. Our patients expect and deserve nothing less. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to be a transforming, healing presence in the communities we serve.
Sincerely yours,
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