IHI's 5 Million Lives Campaign ends with uncertain results

Two and a half years ago, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement had just finished a campaign to save 100,000 lives, and were able to say that their quality improvement efforts had saved at least 123,000 lives. IHI followed up with a more ambitious campaign to try to save 5 million lives in two years.

Well, the two years are up, but IHI doesn't have any actual numbers for us. IHI officially ended its 5 Million Lives Campaign, but currently it is struggling to measure the number of lives actually saved as a result of reducing errors. Leaders admit that despite intense study, it's difficult to figure out which actions taken by caregivers actually achieved improved outcomes. 

This is something of a letdown for a campaign that began with a huge burst of publicity, backed by the prestige and national reputation of CEO Dr. Donald Berwick. It's also a reminder of how difficult it will be to transform the reimbursement system to one that pays entirely for performance.

Meanwhile, IHI has announced a new program, the IHI Improvement Map. The map is an attempt to look at hospitals as a total system instead of as individual clinical components of hospitals. Hopefully it will lead many hospitals that participated in the 5 Million Lives Campaign to continue quality improvement efforts.

To learn more about the programs:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)

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