Hospitals Commit to "Recipes" to Eliminate Preventable Patient Deaths in 7 Years

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The Patient Safety, Science & Technology Movement announced that hospitals and medical technology companies made commitments to eliminate preventable patient deaths by 2020 at a patient safety summit Jan. 13.

At the inaugural Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit, hundreds of healthcare providers, medical technology executives and patient advocates came together to address patient safety in the U.S. By the end of the summit, numerous hospitals and medtech companies committed to take action to reduce preventable patient deaths. More than 20 hospitals and hospital groups pledged to implement at least one of these Commitments to Action, or "recipes," to improve patient safety, and nine medtech companies pledged to make patient data accessible to patients and clinicians.


Here are several action plans healthcare providers committed to:

•    Preventing respiratory depression deaths from post-operative opioids. Michael A. E. Ramsay, MD, FRCA, chairman of the department of anesthesiology at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and president of Baylor Research Institute in Irving, Texas, committed to educating clinicians about the risks of some opioids administered post-operatively for pain management. He will also research new technologies to identify opioid-induced respiratory depression early in patients.
•    Preventing infections in hospitalized patients. Robin Betts, RN, MBA-HM, assistant vice president of quality and patient safety at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, committed to reducing catheter line-associated bloodstream infections at the system.
•    Creating a proactive culture of patient safety. Sharon Rossmark, system vice chair and board chair for patient safety at Sinai Health System in Chicago, committed to establishing Comprehensive Unit Based Safety teams across the system.
•    Making patient safety a global effort. Edward Kelley, MD, PhD, coordinator and head of Strategic Programmes for Patient Safety at the World Health Organization, committed to raising awareness about blood transfusions and technological solutions to appropriate blood management.

More Articles on Patient Safety:

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