There's some encouraging news from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, where Don Berwick's campaign to save 100,000 lives appears to be a success. Berwick, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, launched the campaign in December of 2004, pledging to reduce the number of avoidable deaths at hospitals by pushing specific quality improvements. Since then more than 3,000 hospitals--representing 75 percent of U.S. hospital beds--have agreed to participate. There were a number of specific quality improvements recommended by IHI: forming rapid response teams to treat patients who suffer health emergencies, giving beta blockers and aspirin to patients who have had heart attacks, reconciling patient medication lists to prevent avoidable drug errors and instituting adequate infection control procedures.
- see this release from the IHI