Michigan Intensive Care Units are now safer, findings from a two-year
project revealed last week.

“Keystone: ICU” was put together to reduce medical errors in ICUs as
well as improve overall patient safety through a partnership between
the Michigan Health and Hospital Association (MHA) and The John Hopkins
University Quality and Safety Research Group.

“The number one priority was to make the ICU a safe environment for
better care,” said Sam Watson, associate executive director for the MHA
Keystone Center.

The focus of the project was to look at ways ICUs may cut back on
the number of bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated
pneumonia.

“As a result of Keystone: ICU, medical errors are being avoided and
lives and health care costs are being saved,” MHA President Spencer
Johnson said.

The results announced last week show an estimated 1,578 lives have
been saved, as well as more than $165 million in medical costs saved
thanks to the project.

“When patients spend less days in the hospital, more patients may
potentially receive care and that’s a great benefit,” Watson said.

The project is believed to be the largest safety collaborative of
its kind, with 77 Michigan and five out-of-state hospitals
participating, including Central Michigan Community Hospital.

“We have had very good success with our trainees,” said Patti
Donoho, director of critical care at Genesys Regional Medical Center in
Grand Blanc.

Donoho said Genesys joined the project in June of 2004 and in that
time the hospital has seen its number of bloodstream infections go down
as a result.

“We have gone five or six months without a (bloodstream) infection,”
she said.

While the initial two-year federal grant for the project has
expired, Watson said, Keystone: ICU will continue working with state
hospitals to make their ICUs safer.

“The work continues on even after the use of the grant,” Watson said.

Donoho said Genesys will be one of the hospitals that will continue
working with the MHA on the project.

“Only one of our four ICUs was involved,” Donoho said. “We plan on
spreading the initiatives to the remaining three.”

A spokesperson for CMCH said the hospital also would continue
working on the project.

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