Thanks to a friend for forwarding me this link to this story in the Washington Post: "Hospital infection deaths caused by ignorance and neglect, survey finds."
The pertinent quote: "Pronovost said part of the problem was that many hospital chief executives aren't even aware of their institution's bloodstream infection rates, let alone how easily they could bring them down."
Ugh.
Ours are here for the world to see, mainly to help us hold ourselves accountable to the standard of care to which we aspire. The target is zero, zilch, nada. No other target is intellectually or morally defensible.
I have to ask one more time: What if the Boston hospitals all decided to do this together like those folks in Ohio?
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9 comments:
Curious, have you approached the other CEOs about doing just that? (other than here)
fyi - additional data:
http://www.consumerreports.org/health/doctors-hospitals/hospital-infection/deadly-infections-hospitals-can-lower-the-danger/hospital-infection-rates/index.htm
Some interest in other states . . .
It appears the same story was posted a few weeks ago.
I don't understand.
I am sorry, it appears that this story also ran on this website http://healthlifesource.com/hospital-infection-deaths-caused-by-ignorance-and-neglect-survey-finds-healthlifesource-com/
Generalizations by main stream media cause the casual average american reader to gain a perception of health care that is notably skewed. If more media outlets followed your format that you often use in your blog of transparency, the american public would greatly bennefit.
I have a thought about the article and a thought about your post.
My reaction to the article is pretty much disgust. There is no longer any excuse for every hospital in the U.S. not to be implementing this checklist. The "how-to" is clearly delineated, the idea is evidence-based, and the improved outcomes are documented.* If failing to do it is not malpractice by now (which I believe it is), then at a minimum it is a shameful moral failure.
(* caveat: as with all evidence-based medicine, the evidence must be replicated and validated by long term followup, but that shouldn't prevent implementation)
Reaction to your post and Columbus:
'Central Ohio Patient Safety Conference. This is an annual conference organized by a number of hospitals in the area who decided years ago that "we compete on everything, but we don't compete on safety." '
How interesting that a bunch of hospitals in central Ohio can do this, but not those in one of the meccas of medical care, Boston. Come on, guys.
nonlocal MD
Maybe everybody reading this who is not a hospital CEO should literally print out the WashPo article and deliver it to the CEO where they work or the CEO at one of the hospitals in their community?
Great idea Mark.
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