IHI Campaign to Save Lives Attracts Strong Support

In December 2004, Don Berwick, MD, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), launched a national campaign to save 100,000 lives by June 14, 2006. With the campaign, Berwick and IHI intend to add urgency to the patient safety movement by setting a specific goal and deadline. In February, Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare (PSQH) Editor Susan Carr talked with Joe McCannon, IHI's campaign manager for 100K Lives, about the progress of the campaign.

PSQH: Two months have passed since Dr. Berwick announced the 100K Lives campaign at IHI's Annual Conference. How is the campaign going?

McCannon: The headline answer is that the campaign is going very well. In 60 days, we have enrolled more than 1,000 hospitals to join us in this work. Our objective is to enroll as many as 2,000 hospitals; we think that number will get us comfortably to our goal of 100,000 lives saved by June 14, 2006.

We're seeing a level of momentum and excitement that indicates that people share our sense of frustration and urgency, that they feel compelled to start paying attention to these issues of quality. In some instances, the interventions that we've selected are pretty well aligned with things they would be pursuing in any case.

People seem to recognize that the campaign provides an infrastructure for activity. IHI has given leaders a way to say, "Listen, we have a time frame: 'Some is not a number, soon is not a time.'" It really creates a rallying point. We hope that the campaign will create the systems and processes for future change within an organization. If they can cooperate internally and with other hospitals, they have that resource available for change in the future. It's a secondary, but important objective of ours in this work.

PSQH: When a hospital joins the 100K Lives campaign, what happens? Are you supplying education about the six quality improvement initiatives that you highlight in the campaign?

McCannon: We're making available a package of free support tools to all hospitals that agree to participate: national conference calls about general campaign operations and about each of the six interventions. We also provide what we call "Getting Started" kits. These are detailed directions about introducing each of the six interventions in a hospital setting. There are supports such as online discussion groups. We think that with these tools, people will be in pretty good shape to start to take action. But having said that, we're also building an infrastructure for additional support by creating locals networks led by what we're calling "nodes." These will be high-leverage organizations in a given geographical area, perhaps a large health system or affinity-based groups, such as pediatric groups. These will be networking opportunities where people with common interests can work together and get an added level of support from the campaign node.

PSQH: With your emphasis on a goal and deadline, I assume you plan to quantify the effect of the campaign. How will IHI measure the campaign's progress?

McCannon: We're tracking mortality through monthly figures reported by participating organizations on a quarterly basis and comparing them to mortality figures from the prior year. We're also encouraging participants to track measures associated with each of the interventions. It's not required, but we believe strongly that you can't make any change without measuring your progress.

PSQH: IHI is known for its work with hospitals, but current activity in quality and safety issues reaches beyond traditional hospital organizations. Is there a way for othersãassociations, advocacy groups, even healthcare consumersãto join the campaign?

McCannon: Yes, a core principle of the campaign is that everyone can participate in this work. Partner organizations, like state hospital organizations and national organizations involved in quality, can participate. In fact, we anticipate that many of these organizations will emerge as nodes in the campaign. We are looking into ways to include consumers and patient advocacy groups; we're in an exploratory phase right now. IHI tends to work with hospitals, so developing active partnerships with healthcare consumers about patient safety is a new area for us, but we recognize its importance. The campaign will force us to strengthen ourselves in that area. In some of our other workãchronic disease management, for exampleãwe build in patient involvement and patient-centered care, which should be a principle of this work, too.

For more information or to join the 100K Lives Campaign, visit www.ihi.org/IHI/Programs/Campaign.