Hospital collaboration cuts complication rates

Sixteen Michigan hospitals that are part of a surgical safety collaborative saw the rate of surgical complications drop nearly 10 percent after they started sharing information on patient safety best practices, according to a new study in the Archives of Surgery, HealthDay reports. "The collaboration of hospitals in terms of identifying and disseminating information about best practices is actually a much more effective way of improving quality than just relying on each hospital alone to come up with what they think is a way to improve quality," study author Dr. Darrell A. Campbell Jr., a professor of surgery and chief medical officer at the University of Michigan Health System, said in a university news release. HealthDay and abstract