Contact: Melissa Hamilton
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Fawcett Joins Unprecedented National Campaign To Save 100,000 Lives Through Health Care Improvement

Port Charlotte, FL,  April 22, 2005 – Fawcett Memorial Hospital announced today that it has joined the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 100,000 Lives Campaign, the first-ever national campaign to save 100,000 lives by implementing proven health care improvement techniques. The Campaign aims to enlist more than 1,600 hospitals across the country in the next 18 months to reach this goal. Fawcett is proud to be the first hospital in the area to join a nationwide campaign to prevent 100,000 avoidable deaths in the next 18 months, and 100,000 lives a year thereafter.

The Campaign was formally unveiled on December 14, 2004, and has already been endorsed by such distinguished health care organizations as the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization; and by such noteworthy health care providers as Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Ascension Health, and the Veterans Health Administration.

“We are organizing a world-class campaign to elect quality,” said Dr. Donald Berwick, President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). “The health care organizations that join this campaign are not only demonstrating their commitment to improvement but their determination to put proven, life-saving improvement techniques into action.”

On the surface, the program is hospital focused. But doctors have a crucial role to play. Local physicians are encouraged to join the effort by helping to implement the quality improvement steps. “All of the recommended actions require a team effort -- doctors working with nurses and other personnel as a force for change. This is an opportunity for doctors in the community to lead, said Dr. David Klein, Chairman of the Quality Coordinating Council at Fawcett.”

Health care facilities that choose to participate in the Campaign commit to implement some or all of the following six quality improvement changes:

· Deploy Rapid Response Teams – by allowing any staff member, regardless of position in the chain of command, to call upon a specialty team to examine a patient at the first sign of decline.
· Deliver Reliable Evidence-Based Care for Acute Myocardial Infarction – by consistently delivering key measures - including early administration of aspirin and beta-blockers – that prevent patient deaths from heart attack.
· Prevent Adverse Drug Events – by implementing medication reconciliation, which requires that a list of all of a patient’s medications (even for unrelated illnesses) be compiled and reconciled to ensure that the patient is given (or prescribed) the right medications at the correct dosages - at admission, discharge and before transferring a patient to another care unit.
· Prevent Central Line Infections – by consistently delivering five interdependent, scientifically grounded steps collectively called the “Central Line Bundle.”
· Prevent Surgical Site Infections – by reliably delivering the correct perioperative antibiotics, maintaining glucose levels and avoiding shaving hair at the surgical site.
· Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia – by implementing five interdependent, scientifically grounded steps collectively called the “Ventilator Bundle” – such as elevating the head of the hospital bed by 30 degrees – thereby dramatically reducing mortality and length of stay in the Intensive Care Unit.

Fawcett plans to fully implement 4 of the 6 measures as we have been collecting data and have teams in place for these measures. “The promise of the 100k Lives Campaign lies in its drive to make error prevention part of everyday practice. This campaign will encourage action to produce concrete results rather than just talking about improvements,” said Nancy Whaley, RN, Director of Quality Management at Fawcett. The final 2 measures will be added in the fall of 2005.

To learn more about the 100,000 Lives Campaign, go to www.ihi.org/ihi/programs/campaign.

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