Champions of Change
Donald Berwick, MD, MPP, Founder, President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Dr. Donald Berwick is one of America's leading patient safety advocates. A clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Berwick is the founder, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). For more than 20 years, he has been a positive force for health care quality improvements and a champion of transparency within the health care system. Dr. Berwick's decades-long crusade has earned him a knighthood from the Queen of England, and he has been ranked as the third most powerful American in health care – behind Bill Gates and ahead of President Bush.
Last year Dr. Berwick announced what even he acknowledges is probably his organization's most ambitious project, the 100,000 Lives Campaign. His premise was simple: challenge hospitals to eliminate the estimated 98,000 deaths caused by medical errors in American hospitals each year.
“When I announced the campaign, I knew we were walking out on a limb. We were proposing to do something bigger than we had ever done. I didn't know if hospitals would sign on to the campaign because they may not want to admit there are needless deaths. The response to the “100,000 Lives” campaign has been overwhelming. It's a total surprise to me, and the most inspiring experience of my whole professional career.”
More than 3,037 hospitals have committed to participate, representing 92 percent of the hospital beds in America. In addition, 74 percent of hospitals are reporting their mortality data directly to IHI. This level of reporting astounds Dr. Berwick, since most hospitals are reluctant to release such information unless required by law or a government agency.
“Hospitals don't like to admit mistakes because they think many are not preventable. The feeling is that inevitably there will be deaths and injuries and the public needs to understand that things sometimes go wrong. But this doesn't acknowledge that often deaths and injuries take place because of human or system error or a combination of both – both of which are preventable.”
The campaign encourages thousands of hospitals across the U.S. to make a commitment to implement the following actions within their facilities:
- Deploy Rapid Response Teams... at the first sign of patient decline
- Deliver Reliable, Evidence-Based Care for Acute Myocardial Infarction... to prevent deaths from heart attack
- Prevent Adverse Drug Events (ADEs)... by implementing medication reconciliation
- Prevent Central Line Infections... by implementing a series of interdependent, scientifically grounded steps called the “Central Line Bundle”
- Prevent Surgical Site Infections... by reliably delivering the correct perioperative care
- Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia... by implementing a series of interdependent, scientifically grounded steps called the “Ventilator Bundle”
For more Champions of Change visit our PBS.org companion site at www.pbs.org/remakingamericanmedicine/champions.html
