Salem Hospital Celebrates Success in Saving Additional Lives

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(SALEM) - 86 employees of Salem Hospital, volunteers and family members stood up, with electric candles, in the darkened hospital auditorium Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM.

The candleholders represented the additional lives that have been saved at Salem Hospital, as a result of the hospital's work on the 100,000 Lives Campaign and other quality-improvement measures.

The 100,000 Lives Campaign, launched by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, called upon hospitals to follow a set of six proven sets of actions, that when employed consistently, could save lives: www.ihi.org

The steps can help hospitals dramatically reduce heart-attack deaths, bad reactions to medication, infections from IVs and surgery, and pneumonia in people using ventilators. The steps include the deployment of rapid-response teams, at the first sign of patient decline. In the most recent data, Salem Hospital's rapid-response team has been called upon 70 times in one month to assist staff in assessing a patient's needs.

Salem Hospital adopted all six of the strategies, which include:

• Activate a Rapid Response Team at the first sign that a patient's condition is worsening and may lead to a more serious medical emergency.
• Prevent patients from dying of heart attacks by delivering evidence-based care, such as appropriate administration of aspirin and beta-blockers to prevent further heart muscle damage.
• Prevent medication errors by ensuring that accurate and continually updated lists of patients' medications are reviewed and reconciled during their hospital stay, particularly at transition points.
• Prevent patients who are receiving medicines and fluids through central lines from developing infections by following five steps, including proper hand washing and cleaning the patient's skin with "chlorhexidine" (a type of antiseptic).
• Prevent patients undergoing surgery from developing infections by following a series of steps, including the timely administration of antibiotics.
• Prevent patients on ventilators from developing pneumonia by following four steps, including raising the head of the patient's bed between 30 and 45 degrees.