According to the Institute of Medicine, each year between 44,000 and 98,000 people die from preventable medical mistakes made in hospitals. In addition, one million preventable medication mistakes occur annually. The key is that many mistakes are preventable.

VBCH is the regional roll-out leader for the Leapfrog Group for Patient Safety initiative. The Leapfrog Group was founded by the Business Roundtable with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is guided by some of the nation’s leading medical and scientific experts. It was created to help save lives and reduce preventable medical mistakes by giving consumers the information they need to make more informed healthcare choices. Key to its mission is promoting a transparent marketplace where hospital and physician quality and value are readily discernable by the public and superior providers are rewarded. To review Leapfrog data for Hampton Roads, Virginia and parts of North Carolina, visit www.leapfroggroup.org.

With the help of leading healthcare and research experts, The Leapfrog Group identified four proven safety practices to prevent medical mistakes in hospitals:

• Using computer physician order entry (CPOE)
• Selecting hospitals with the proven outcomes or extensive experience with select high risk conditions and procedures (Evidence-based Hospital Referral)
• Staffing Intensive Care Units with trained physician specialists (ICU)
• The National Quality Forum Safe Practices – Leapfrog scores hospitals’ progress on the 27 NQF Safe Practices

These four practices will save lives. Adoption of these practices could save nearly 60,000 lives and prevent more than 500,000 medication errors annually.

Leapfrog Links

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