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For Immediate Release
March 24, 2006
Mercy Named Mentor Hospital by Institute for
Healthcare Improvement
Oklahoma City—Mercy is among some two dozen
hospitals nationwide serving as a mentor hospital for reducing
ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) cases. As a part of the Institute
for Healthcare Improvement’s 100,000 Lives Campaign, Mercy has reduced
VAP by 50 percent in less than a year.
VAP is a life-threatening infection of the lungs
that can develop in intensive care patients dependent on mechanical
ventilators to help them breathe.
“In the U.S., about 15 percent of patients on
ventilators develop pneumonia,” said Wanda Fairless, Mercy’s director of
quality management. “VAP is a leading killer among all hospital-acquired
infections, causing an estimated 26,000 deaths every year. For several
years now, Mercy has used proven research to improve care at the
bedside, and we are very excited to serve as a mentor hospital in an
effort to coach other hospitals on how we’ve been able to achieve these
improvements.”
Beginning last year, Mercy initiated a series of
steps to reduce VAP, such as raising the head of the bed to an angle of
30 to 45 degrees and weaning patients off ventilators as quickly as
possible.
“Within the first three months of making these
changes, we were seeing a 35 percent reduction in VAP and now, more than
10 months into Mercy’s initiative, VAP at Mercy has been reduced by 50
percent,” said Fairless. “We are very committed to do whatever possible
to reduce infections. Our goal is zero—we want ventilator-associated
pneumonias to be rare events. And we hope by being a mentor that we’ll
not only share with other hospitals how we were able to implement
changes, but that these improvements will become the new standard of
care across the country.”
Launched in December 2004, the 100,000 Lives
Campaign is the first-ever national initiative that aims to save a large
and specified number of lives by June 2006. The campaign asks
participating hospitals to implement six evidence-based interventions,
one of which targets VAPs. To access mentor hospitals, go to http://www.ihi.org/IHI/Programs/Campaign.
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