Patient Safety Initiatives: What Physicians and Consumers Need to Know
Background: The 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that up to 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors in hospitals. The report recommended that large purchasers (such as General Motors) use their "clout" to reinforce the need for quality and safety. UPDATE June 2005: Despite the focus on patient safety since this article came out, slow progress is being made across the country.
Leapfrog Group: The Leapfrog Group - a consortium of over 130 Fortune 500 and other companies, continues to be one of the nationally recognized leaders in advancing the cause of quality, customer service, and affordability in health care. Its mission is to help consumers make more informed choices, and educate them about ways to improve safety and the overall value of health care.
The Leapfrog Group has since added a new Leap of Care or measure, to the previous 3 Leaps of Care listed below. The Leaps focus on customer education, comparison of health care provider performance, and hospital recognition. They are:
- Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE). With CPOE systems, physicians enter medication orders into a computer that is linked to error-prevention software. CPOE has been shown to reduce serious prescribing errors in hospitals up to 88%!
- Evidence-Based Hospital Referral. Patients who need complex medical procedures are referred to hospitals offering the best survival odds (based on scientifically valid criteria such as the number of times a hospital performs these procedures each year). As a result, research indicates that a patient’s risk of dying could be reduced by more than 30%.
- Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Physician Staffing. Staffing ICUs with physicians who have credentials in critical care medicine has been shown to reduce the risk of dying in the ICU by close to 30%.
- NEW Quality Index: 27 Safe Practices have been added for hospitals to use to help prevent medical errors and improve patient safety. These include such practices as caregivers washing their hands before caring for patients to preventing wrong site surgeries from being done.
Michigan Health and Safety Coalition (MH&SC): The MH&SC is an organization dedicated to improving patient safety in Michigan based on the principals established by the Leapfrog Group. This collaborative group - composed of health care plans, providers, employers and union groups - engaged panels of clinical experts from Michigan to look at seven key areas of care identified by Leapfrog. They in turn made recommendations for staffing, patient volume, data collection, continuous improvement, as well as other quality initiatives. The MH&SC also coordinated a survey and subsequently issued a Consumer Report of all Michigan hospitals, which evaluated their performance in the areas discussed above: CPOE, evidenced-based referrals, and ICU staffing.
Your Role as a Consumer of Health Care: Patient safety and hospital quality information is crucial to consumers of health care and those making health care decisions. To learn more about Leapfrog, how MH&SC ranked and evaluated Michigan hospitals in their Consumer Report, and other information on health care safety issues, check out these Web sites:
HAP is partnering with other health plans on a Southeastern Michigan initiative with the Greater Detroit Area Health Council (GDAHC) to develop and implement an incentive program to help drive patient safety and quality improvement efforts in Southeastern Michigan hospitals. It's called Saving Lives, Saving Dollars. More information can be found at GDAHC’s web site www.gdahc.org
Other important safety and quality topics can be found by searching on these and related topics:
- Health care price
- Doctor quality
- Hospital quality
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