The Institute for Healthcare Improvement gives the following update. How impressive! And how generous of Columbia Regional to offer to share what they have learned. What a shame that The Joint Commission
has not followed this lead by making its best practice library available to all.
Mentor Hospital Goes 5 Years Without a VAP
Staff at Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, IN, recently celebrated an amazing accomplishment. They have gone five years without a single incidence of a ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). These deadly pneumonias used to be considered an unfortunate reality in ICUs. As a participant in IHI's 100,000 Lives and 5 Million Lives Campaigns, the hospital took aim at reducing VAP by implementing the IHI Ventilator Bundle, evidence-based care guidelines that, when reliably applied, can drastically reduce and even eliminate these infections. One of the enduring legacies of the Campaigns is a robust registry of mentor hospitals, facilities that have outstanding track records in improvement in Campaign-related topic areas that have generously agreed to provide support and clinical expertise to hospitals seeking help with their implementation efforts. Columbus Regional has been a mentor hospital since 2006 for the topics of VAP, Rapid Response Systems, the Central Line Bundle, and Heart Failure Core Processes. IHI congratulates Columbus Regional on their tremendous achievements.
It just goes to show that you never know until you try, do you?
ReplyDeleteAs for the JC, you are right on target. We all know that hospitals pay the JC large amounts of money to be inspected and have access to helpful information. But one must wonder whether patient safety information is the type of information that we wish to remain proprietary. In all good conscience, I do not think so, and there are a lot of grieving families who would agree.
nonlocal MD