COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — A unique
collaborative effort among business leaders and health care
providers to make Ohio the safest place in the nation for health
care has led to more than $12.8 million in health care savings,
more than 900 fewer patient days spent in the hospital and nearly
3,600 fewer adverse drug events and infections in children.
The Solutions for Patient Safety initiative, launched in
January 2009 and funded with a $1.5 million investment from the
Cardinal Health Foundation, is a partnership among the Cardinal
Health Foundation, the Ohio Business Roundtable, the Central Ohio
Hospital Council, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio
Children’s Hospital Association and 25 hospitals throughout the
state. The goal of the partnership is to improve quality and
reduce costs of health care statewide.
“Cardinal Health is proud to be a founding sponsor and ongoing
partner in this groundbreaking initiative that has and will
continue to save lives – not only throughout Ohio, but across
the nation,” said George S. Barrett, chairman and CEO, Cardinal
Health. “The impressive results of the Solutions for Patient
Safety initiative prove that true collaboration among
healthcare leaders and clinicians can create meaningful
transformation in patient care.”
Ohio’s eight children’s hospitals and 17 Central Ohio hospitals
worked to implement specific programs to reduce health
care-associated infections (HAIs) and medication errors. Through
their work, the hospitals identified data collection protocols and
best practice processes that were shared among the institutions and
will also be shared with interested outside organizations in Ohio
and nationwide.
Specifically, the Central Ohio hospitals focused on reducing
catheter-associated blood borne infections and reducing health
care-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
infections. Simultaneously, Ohio’s children’s ho
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