December 28, 2009 |
For more information, contact: |
Trinity Health Meets Original Aims of Institute of Medicine Report
On 10th anniversary of landmark report, IOM-inspired processes helped improve mortality rates by 35% at Trinity Health
(December 28, 2009) – Ten years after the Institute of Medicine shook the medical community with its report, “To Err Is Human: Building a Better Health System,” Trinity Health announced that it has successfully engrained the Institute’s recommendations within the care delivery practices of its 44 community hospitals. As a result, an internal study revealed that IOM-inspired clinical care processes helped Trinity Health improve its annual severity-adjusted mortality rate by 35 percent. Severity-adjusted mortality is a measure of patient survival in cases where death did not occur, but were expected given the condition. In the study, Trinity Health compared its mortality rates in 2005 against 2009 data. “The IOM report unmasked the reality of our nation’s fragmented and decentralized system of care that contribute to more deaths than breast cancer and auto accidents combined,” said Joseph R. Swedish, president and CEO, Trinity Health. “Today, I’m proud to say Trinity Health has crossed the threshhold of the IOM’s original goals and is saving more lives within an environment of increased safety, evidence-based practices through advanced health information technology, and sharp attention to quality care delivery.” In December 1999, the IOM released findings that medical errors were leading to the deaths of patient who should have left hospitals healthy. The report determined that up to 98,000 people died in U.S. hospitals each year due to medical harm. The report made four major recommendations, including establishing a national focus on patient safety knowledge; identifying and learning from errors; raising patient safety standards and expectations; and creating systems inside health care organizaitons for implementing best practices. “Trinity Health committed to an unrelenting focus on clinical and service outcomes,” said Trinity Health Chief Clinical Officer Terrence O’Rourke, MD. “This accomplishment is due to strong leadership; the presence of a ‘learning culture’ of caregivers; innovative quality improvement and safety programs; and our commitment to providing the necessary technology for our clinicians to succeed.” Co-terminus with theThe IOM report in 1999 and the subsequent report, “Crossing the Quality Chasm,”, Trinity Health has experience significant quality, safety and patient satisfaction performance. For example, patient satisfaction scores by HCAHPS have risen to the 76th percentile of the industry. There have been many milestones on Trinity Health’s journey to becoming a safer health system. The following timeline illustrates the pioneering and industry leading efforts of Trinity Health hospitals to improve quality and safety. 2000 - Trinity Health launches Genesis, becoming one of the first multi-state health systems to engage in an advanced, large-scale initiative to improve care quality through a wide array of clinical decision-support systems, including computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and electronic health records. 2002 - Recognizing the importance of transparent and honest communication among nurses, physicians and staff, Trinity Health developed PEERS (Potential Error/Event Reporting System) as an online tool to gather data on errors and “near misses” from clinicians in an anonymous and nonpunitive way. PEERS is modeled after the NASA system of aviation error-reporting to help create a culture of learning. |
|
2003 - Trinity Health equips its community hospitals with an adverse drug event (ADE) alert system that informs physicians and pharmacists whenever a prescription contains dosing errors or conflicts with pre-existing conditions. More than 60,000 incidents have been recorded where an alert resulted in the changing of a medication order. The 119-bed St. Josph Mercy Hospital in Port Huron, Michigan, becomes the first Trinity Health hospital to activate electronic health records with computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems. 2004 - Trinity Health’s progress is confirmed with the National Quality Award by the National Committee for Quality Healthc Care, which is now part of the National Quality Forum. Trinity Health joins the IOM’s “100,000 Lives Campaign” to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality in American health care. 2006 - A new strategic vision makes “excellence in the care experience” the pre-iminent strategic imperative of the health system. 2007 - Trinity Health physicians and clinicans have evidenced-based care at their fingertips. Gleaning evidence-based practices from its E HR clinical data repository, Trinity Health clinicians create 180 standardized order sets based on best practices in the field of medicine. Trinity Health creates the nation’s first integrated rural EHR network connecting seven hospitals of 25 beds or less in Northern Iowa. They become members of an exclusive club of less than 3 percent of the nation’s rural facilities with electronic health records. 2009 - A five year journey in health information technology notches a milestone in 2009 when three-hospital Saint Joseph Mercy Health System brings the total number of Trinity Health hospitals to 25 using computerized clinical systems for the delivery of safe, high quality care. 7 million patient records in a centralized database that improves safety and quality of care. Trinity Health teams with The Joint Commission’s Center for Transforming Healthcare to find the causes of and put a stop to breakdowns in patient care. (put us in elite company). Trinity Health is named one of the top 10 health systems in the nation for clinical performance, as recognized by the Thomson Reuters’ 100 Top Hospitals: Health Systems Quality/Efficiency Study. About Trinity Health Trinity Health is the fourth-largest Catholic health care system in the country. Based in Novi, Mich., Trinity Health operates 44 acute-care hospitals, 379 outpatient facilities, 33 long-term care facilities, and numerous home health offices and hospice programs in eight states. Employing 45,800 full-time staff, Trinity Health reported $7.0 billion in unrestricted revenue in fiscal year 2009. As a not-for-profit health system, Trinity Health reinvests its profits back into the community through programs to serve the poor and uninsured, manage chronic conditions like diabetes, health education and promotion initiatives, and outreach for the elderly. In Fiscal Year 2009, this included nearly $400 million in such community benefits. For more information about Trinity Health, visit www.trinity-health.org or become a fan of the Trinity Health Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/ylpm3np. |