FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2009

St. John’s Mercy Hospital Recognized for
Commitment to Patient Safety

St. John’s Mercy Hospital was recognized by Missouri’s Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) for its commitment to patient safety and its participation in IHI’s 5 Million Lives campaign.

The 5 Million Lives Campaign was a voluntary initiative to protect patients from five million incidents of medical harm over a two-year period from December 2006 to December 2008.

“ St. John’s Mercy voluntarily committed to implementing all twelve campaign interventions,” said Paul Reading, Director of Quality Improvement for St. John’s Mercy Hospital. “Those projects were based on evidence from Medical Science and focused on eliminating skin breakdowns, infections, medication errors, and surgical complications in all hospitals in the United States.”

As a result, St. John’s Mercy Hospital doctors, nurses and therapists have actively worked on developing standard clinical practices that have resulted in extraordinary quality results for patients.

The Joint Commission, the national hospital accreditation agency, recently notified St. John’s Mercy Hospital that the first quarter 2009 quality scores rank the hospital in the top 25 percent of all hospitals in the United States and the highest scoring hospital within the Sisters of Mercy Health System.

Hospitals statewide participated in the patient safety program. To be listed by the IHI as fully committed, a hospital had to submit monthly mortality data and implement at least one or more of these campaign improvement initiatives:

• deploy rapid response teams
• deliver reliable, evidence-based care for acute myocardial infarction
• prevent adverse drug events
• prevent central line infections
• prevent surgical site infections
• prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia
• reduce surgical complications
• prevent pressure ulcers
• reduce MRSA infection
• deliver reliable, evidence-based care for congestive heart failure
• engage their governing board through the “boards on board” program

Many of the hospitals that participated in the 5 Million Lives campaign, which concluded in December, carried forward the work of IHI’s 100,000 Lives campaign, which began in December 2006. St. John’s Mercy Hospital was one of 61 Missouri hospitals listed by IHI as being fully committed to the 5 Million Lives campaign. 

IHI activities are coordinated through states. In Missouri, the Missouri Hospital Association, Missouri Center for Patient Safety and Primaris coordinated activities.

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