We need leaders: The 48th annual rovenstine lecture

TY - JOUR

T1 - We need leaders

T2 - The 48th annual rovenstine lecture

AU - Pronovost, Peter J.

N1 - Funding Information: Ultimately, we virtually eliminated central-line infections in many ICUs in Michigan and sustained those results for 4 yr. Moreover, the culture of safety improved by approximately 50%. 11,12 The project likely saved an estimated 2,000 lives and more than 200 million dollars a year. The mortality of all Medicare patients admitted to an ICU in Michigan, compared with similar patients in 11 surrounding states, was reduced to approximately 20%. As you may imagine, these results grabbed the attention of consumers and the Congress. A survey by Congressman Waxman revealed that all states said they were using the checklist, but only 11 measured infection rates, and few were anywhere near as low as Michigan. The Secretary of Health and Human Services subsequently called for a 75% reduction in these infections within 3 yr after implementing this program throughout the United States. This will not be easy. It will require unprecedented collaboration in health care. With funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Philanthropy, my team is working with doctors, nurses, intensivists, infection preventionists, state hospital associations, and health departments, The Joint Commission, the Leapfrog Group, consumers, insurers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to replicate the Michigan project state by state. We are also working with the World Health Organization, ministers of health, and professional societies to implement the program in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Peru. If we can replicate the Michigan results elsewhere, this intervention will save more lives than any other medical intervention in the past half century. It could be the Polio Campaign of our generation. We need one. The progress we have made to improve patient safety in the past decade is unacceptable.

PY - 2010/4

Y1 - 2010/4

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77950861531&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77950861531&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1097/ALN.0b013e3181d32047

DO - 10.1097/ALN.0b013e3181d32047

M3 - Article

C2 - 20216391

AN - SCOPUS:77950861531

SN - 0003-3022

VL - 112

SP - 779

EP - 785

JO - Anesthesiology

JF - Anesthesiology

IS - 4

ER -