Colorado hospitals have embarked on a campaign to curtail risks and possibly save lives by taking simple steps such as employing greater care in giving antibiotics and making sure employees wash their hands.
Sixty-one hospitals in the state are participating in the “100,000 Lives” campaign – and each will get a $35,000 grant to implement it.
The campaign, sponsored by the Massachusetts-based Institute for Health Care Improvement, sets six goals, and organizers say if 2,600 hospitals across the country achieve all six, 100,000 patients could be spared avoidable death.
“At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is change systems,” said Jim Conway, a senior fellow at the institute and a former Boston hospital administrator.
Hospital errors and infections have become an issue since a 1999 report by the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine estimating that such miscues lead to as many as 98,000 deaths a year.
The six goals were chosen because each is relatively easy to implement and the benefits have been backed up by research, according to the institute. They include:
Preventing surgical-site infections by delivering antibiotics at the proper time.
Preventing adverse drug reactions by ensuring that prescribed medications still work when combined.
Giving aspirin to heart attack patients when they arrive at the hospital and when they leave.
Preventing infections from intravenous tubes by making staff members wash hands and wear gloves.
Preventing ventilator-linked pneumonia by elevating patients’ heads.
Creating emergency-response teams that can rapidly intervene when a patient’s condition first shows signs of deteriorating.
It sounds like basic health care, and it is, said Jonathan Small, an institute spokesman.
“I don’t think there is any excuse for any hospital not to be doing any of these things,” Small said. “They’re not onerous.”
Colorado hospitals participating in the campaign say they are delivering safe, state-of-the-art care.
Those participating – all but 10 of the state’s 71 acute-care hospitals – say they signed on because they are committed to improving care.
“We’ve instituted a lot of these things,” said Kimberly Langston, spokeswoman for Swedish Medical Center. “But this is really trying to focus on taking patient safety to the next level.”
To help Colorado hospitals do that, the Colorado Trust, a Denver-based nonprofit foundation, has pledged $3.8 million, which includes $35,000 to each hospital.
Staff writer Karen Auge can be reached at 303-820-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
