Cutting Harm in Half

Reducing preventable harm by half is a lofty goal for any hospital, let alone a large, integrated system. But leaders at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit say their ambitious No Harm campaign has transformed the system's culture from the board room to the front lines. In 2007, Henry Ford's board of trustees set a goal of reducing preventable harm by 50 percent by December 2010. After the system's executive leadership analyzed data to determine major causes of harm, clinicians at Henry Ford's seven acute care hospitals were charged with developing grass-roots solutions in their individual units. Since the campaign began in earnest in March 2008, aggregate inpatient harm rate has been reduced by roughly 20 percent. Jack Jordan, Henry Ford's director of quality, credits the campaign's careful integration of board and executive planning with creative solutions from front-line clinicians. 'We wanted everybody to look at everything, but not to force that there's a one size fits all solution,' Jordan says.