We Can Do Better endorses the “Triple Aim,” which is to:
- improve the health of a defined population;
- reduce or contain per capita costs; and
- to improve the experience of users of the system.
Legacy has taken some key steps that help on all three counts. Writing for the Oregonian, Joe Rojas-Burke reports:
Doctors and nurses had big doubts when Portland-based Legacy Health announced specific goals to reduce patient deaths and infections during hospital stays.
“Our mortality rates were already better than average — they thought you couldn’t drive it down more,” said Dr. George Cioffi, Legacy Health’s chief medical officer.
Organizers called it the “Big Aims” initiative. Legacy’s six hospitals involved employees at all levels, from administrators to housekeepers. Nurses and doctors strictly followed lists of proven safety measures. Expert teams reviewed deaths and used the findings to make practices safer. Teams of caregivers checked patients each day, rather than leaving it to lone doctors on their daily rounds.
The results surprised everyone. In two years, the campaign reduced hospital infections by about 45 percent and patient deaths by about 14 percent. Without the changes, officials calculate that 200 people would have died and more than 500 would have acquired hospital infections. A detailed report on the safety effort appears today in the journal Health Affairs.
The results at Legacy Health show many sources of error can be eliminated — and save money. Cioffi and co-authors estimate the safety campaign saved more than $13 million from the avoided costs of treating infections.
Read the whole story here.
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