Healthcare In Crisis: Hospital aims to eliminate mistakes

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Hospital aims to eliminate mistakes

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has launched an ambitious quality-improvement effort aimed at eliminating within four years all harm to patients that it considers preventable, such as falls, infections caused by intravenous lines, and medication errors.

The Harvard teaching hospital in Boston and its suburban hospital in Needham have already begun measuring ways in which they endanger patients and plan to publish the results quarterly. The goal is to reach the top 2 percent of hospitals in patient satisfaction. Currently, Beth Israel Deaconess ranks in the top 12 percent for patient satisfaction, according to nationwide surveys.

"This is aggressive," said Paul Levy, chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess. "We're pushing beyond the level of care at which regulators are comfortable."

Many hospitals have worked for years to eliminate medical errors and reduce the number of preventable infections. Beth Israel Deaconess's program is different from most in that it sets a specific goal. It hinges on training the board of directors about healthcare quality and medical errors and getting them personally involved in making clinical improvements. In addition, a portion of senior managers' bonuses will be tied to making improvements.

Full story here

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Many thanks!; January 24, 2008
~ Barbara ~ said...: Wishing you success!; January 24, 2008

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Statistics Collection

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