IHI Launches National Campaign to Save 100,000 Lives in U.S. Hospitals

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has launched a national campaign to save 100,000 lives in U.S. hospitals during the next 18 months and every year thereafter. The “100,000 Lives Campaign” focuses on recruiting hospitals across the country to implement changes in patient care that have been proved to prevent avoidable deaths. Quality improvement changes include deploying rapid response teams, delivering reliable evidence-based care for acute myocardial infarction, preventing adverse drug events, preventing central line infections, preventing surgical site infections, and preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia. More information about the improvement techniques and the campaign are available online at http://www.ihi.org/ihi/programs/campaign. The site also provides detailed information on each recommended change, tools, resources, and success stories. IHI is a nonprofit organization founded in 1991 as a catalyst for change, formulating new concepts for improving patient care and implementing programs for putting those ideas into action.

NPSF Launches Interactive Educational Web Site

The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) has launched an interactive Web site with education modules for physicians (http://www.npsf.org/html/mcw/physicians.html), nurses (http://www.npsf.org/html/mcw/nurses.html), and patients (http://www.npsf.org/html/patients_web.html). The site was developed using a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to research and create a standard method of patient education to reach large audiences. The physician and nurse modules offer continuing education credits through the Medical College of Wisconsin. The patient section provides basic information about safer patient care, including pediatric care, and medication, medical device, and anesthesia safety. NPSF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with the health care industry to find affordable ways through research and education to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of the nation’s health care. More information about the organization is available online at http://www.npsf.org.

AHRQ Launches Bioterrorism Preparedness Listserv

AHRQ has launched a listserv for health professionals, public health officials, hospital administrators, and others interested in news about bioterrorism preparedness research, planning, and response projects. The objective of AHRQ’s research is to assess and improve the U.S. health system’s capacity to respond to suspected or confirmed bioterrorism incidents. Projects focus on surge capacity, clinical preparedness, training, and the ability of front-line medical staff, including primary care physicians and emergency personnel, to detect and respond to bioterrorist threats. The listserv will provide descriptions of AHRQ reports, tools, and links to these products and related materials. To subscribe to the service, go to http://www.ahcpr.gov/research/btpreplist.htm.

NHLBI Issues Alert to Continue Transfusions in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has issued a clinical alert advising physicians to continue providing chronic blood transfusion to children with sickle cell anemia who are at risk for stroke. The recommendation is based on early findings from the second Stroke Prevention Trial (STOP II) in sickle cell anemia, which was intended to test whether periodic transfusions could be discontinued safely after at least 30 months in children who had not had an overt stroke and had reverted to low risk for stroke based on transcranial Doppler velocity studies. Early analysis showed that if transfusions were discontinued, a significant number of children reverted to high risk for stroke. The alert is available online at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/blood/sickle/clinical-alert-scd.htm.

AAFP Sends Letter to ABFM About Maintenance Certification

In response to directives from the 2004 Congress of Delegates, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) sent a letter to the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) about the Maintenance of Certification Program for Family Physicians. The letter, sent by Board Chair Michael Fleming, M.D., Shreveport, La., outlined two resolutions adopted by the delegates and a series of recommendations to the board on how the objectives of those resolutions might be achieved. The letter recommends making completion of the self-assessment modules optional in 2004 and 2005; cutting the number of modules required to three per recertification cycle, or one every other year; providing paper versions of the now online-only modules for several years to aid in transitioning to the new process; including more specific information about correct versus incorrect answers; and addressing technical problems that family physicians have experienced on the module Web site. The full text of the letter and additional information are available online at https://www.aafp.org/x30941.xml.

Appropriations Bill Includes Several AAFP-Supported Provisions

President Bush signed a bill appropriating $89.5 million for Section 747 of Title VII of the Public Health Service Act, which finances training for primary health care professionals. The funding for fiscal year 2005 exceeds that for 2004 by $7.5 million. Provisions of the bill include the following: $3 million for a Citizens’ Health Care Working Group; $319 million for AHRQ; $1.7 billion for community health centers; $145.9 million for rural health programs; and $132.5 million for the National Health Service Corps. More information is available online at https://www.aafp.org/x30987.xml.