Pride and Progress

The progress hospitals are making to improve patient care was featured in a recent New York Times blog on fixing difficult problems. The piece highlights the work of hospitals across the country to reduce preventable infections arising from surgeries, pressure ulcers, blood clots and other sources. The hospitals and staffs named fully deserve the recognition. But these efforts are not isolated. Getting to zero incidents is part of a bigger push across our field to continually improve patient safety. The Hospital Engagement Network initiative, in which the AHA is a major participant, shows what we can achieve when we focus our efforts. Nationally, from 2010 to 2014, there’s been 2.1 million fewer incidents of harm reported and 87,000 deaths avoided, resulting in nearly $20 billion in cost savings. We are proud of the progress we’ve made. It inspires us to do more to reach our ultimate goal of making hospitals the highest reliability institutions in America and providing every patient with the safest care possible.