Organizations Partner to Eliminate Preventable Patient Deaths in U.S. Hospitals by 2020

The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare and the Patient Safety Movement Foundation are partnering to host a summit to help eliminate the many preventable deaths in U.S. hospitals by 2020.

The Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit, scheduled for Jan. 11-13, 2014, will gather industry leaders to focus on three problematic areas in healthcare today improving the effectiveness of hand-off communications, reducing healthcare-acquired infections, and creating a culture of safety. These three new focus areas will add to the challenges identified in the 2013 Patient Safety Science and Technology Summit including failure to rescue, medication errors, blood transfusion overuse, intravascular catheter-related infections, sub-optimal neonatal oxygen targeting, and failure to detect critical congenital heart disease. In addition to the groundbreaking med-tech commitments made in 2013 for patient data displayed on all devices, at the 2014 Summit hospitals and med-tech companies will commit to actively participate in improving patient safety and quality.

This upcoming Summit presents an opportunity to gather a unique group of stakeholders patient advocates and those from medical technology companies and hospitals to address the most pressing patient safety problems facing the healthcare industry, says Dr. Mark R. Chassin, president and CEO of The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare. The Joint Commission and the Center for Transforming Healthcares goals for improving patient safety are directly aligned with the mission of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. We need to do something different to achieve these challenging goals and the Patient Safety Movement Foundation is about taking action, rather than just talking about change. We share the passion and commitment it will take to eliminate preventable patient deaths by 2020.

In January 2013, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation brought together industry leaders at the inaugural Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit. President Bill Clinton headlined the Summit and attendees from around the world vowed to take action and implement specific steps to dramatically improve patient safety. The Summit also made history when for the first time nine leading medical technology companies including Cercacor, Cerner, Dräger, GE Healthcare Systems, Masimo, Smiths Medical, Sonosite, Surgicount, and Zoll publicly committed to make available the data their devices display so that it can be shared across devices to improve patient safety. For example, data from an IV pump would be openly shared not just with the electronic health record but also with other devices such as patient monitors (and vice versa) while complying with all patient privacy laws. With the med-tech industry sharing the data their products are purchased for, finally there is an opportunity to create a patient data superhighway for real-time analysis and presentation of the status of the patient. The commitments to data sharing are designed to help  eliminate preventable patient deaths at U.S. hospitals by providing caregivers easy access to accurate and complete data needed to make clinical decisions and provide treatment.

As part of the 2014 Summit, the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare and the Patient Safety Movement Foundation will promote new ways of tackling additional patient safety challenges. The goal of the Summit will be results that show improvement in patient safety and quality through the solutions discussed to ultimately achieve zero preventable deaths by 2020.

We are honored that the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare has elected to partner with us in this movement to eradicate preventable patient deaths, says Joe Kiani, founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation and CEO of medical technology company Masimo. Together, with the help of a growing coalition of healthcare leaders from around the globe dedicated to improving patient safety, we can end the unnecessary pain and suffering of loved ones who lose family and friends to preventable complications of health care.

Source: Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare