5 Million Lives

BayCare's leading not-for-profit hospitals are proud to take part in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) 5 Million Lives Campaign, an initiative to protect patients across the country from 5 million incidents of medical harm over the next 2 years (December 2006 to December 2008).

The campaign's objectives are:

• Avoid 5 million incidents of harm over the next 24 months;
• Enroll more than 4,000 hospitals and their communities in this work;
• Strengthen the campaign's national infrastructure for change and transform it into a national asset; and
• Raise the profile of the problem - and hospitals' proactive response - with a larger, public audience.

New interventions targeted by this campaign:

• Prevent Pressure Ulcers ... by reliably using science-based guidelines for their prevention
• Reduce Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Infection ... by reliably implementing scientifically proven infection control practices
• Prevent Harm from High-Alert Medications ... starting with a focus on anticoagulants, sedatives, narcotics and insulin
• Reduce Surgical Complications ... by reliably implementing all of the changes in care recommended by the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP)
• Deliver Reliable, Evidence-Based Care for Congestive Heart Failure ... to reduce readmission
• Get Boards on Board ... Defining and spreading the best-known leveraged processes for hospital Boards of Directors, so that they can become far more effective in accelerating organizational progress toward safe care

100,000 Lives Campaign

BayCare's hospitals also were part of IHI's landmark 100,000 Lives Campaign, which ended June 2006. According to the IHI, participating hospitals saved an estimated 123,000 lives nationwide by implementing the following 6 improvements:

• Deploy Rapid Response Teams ... at the first sign of patient decline
• Deliver Reliable, Evidence-Based Care for Acute Myocardial Infarction ... to prevent deaths from heart attack
• Prevent Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) ... by implementing medication reconciliation
• Prevent Central Line Infections ... by implementing a series of interdependent, scientifically grounded steps
• Prevent Surgical Site Infections ... by reliably delivering the correct perioperative antibiotics at the proper time
• Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia ... by implementing a series of interdepended, scientifically grounded steps

Our hospitals remain committed to sustaining the quality improvements advocated by the 100,000 Lives Campaign.