Illinois Hospital Association

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Illinois Hospitals Taking the Lead in Patient Safety

Collectively and individually our members have advanced Illinois’ safety culture by:

  • Publicly affirming a pledge to promote a culture of safety within each of their facilities; 97% of Illinois hospital CEOs have signed the pledge.
     
  • Establishing the IHA Patient Safety Learning Collaborative, a nine-month, dedicated program bringing together Illinois patient safety leaders and hospital teams across multiple disciplines to share and exchange ideas, strategies and lessons learned for preventing harm and improving patient care. Illinois patient safety leaders who are part of this collaborative include:

    - Bruce Lambert, Ph.D.: Nationally recognized for his work with FDA, JCAHO and others on sound-alike/look-alike pharmaceutical names and errors; professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
    - Steve Small, M.D.: Directs the University of Chicago Developing Center for Patient Safety, a medical simulation facility with the capacity to perform small systems simulations as well as individual and team training.
    - Kevin Weiss, M.D.: Chair of the Chicago Patient Safety Forum, contributing author to IOM reports and patient safety researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Hines VA and Chicago VA Hospital.
    - John Whittington, M.D.: Patient Safety Scholar at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety Officer at OSF Healthcare, a system with Illinois hospitals.

The Collaborative’s current program on Medication Safety was launched in January 2005 with 25 hospitals and one hospital system (which includes five hospitals) participating.

Other Patient Safety Accomplishments by IHA Member Hospitals:
  • Member Hospitals Receiving the 2006 Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient Safety
    - Central DuPage Hospital, Winfield
    - Riverside Medical Center, Kankakee
     
  • Sixty-six Illinois hospitals (including many of these hospitals in four health care systems) are participating in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s "100,000 Lives Campaign" (as of July 15, 2005)
     
  • SSM Health Care (which includes three facilities in Illinois – Good Samaritan Regional, Mount Vernon; St. Francis Hospital, Blue Island; and St. Mary’s, Centralia) was the first-ever health care organization to be awarded the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2002.
     
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Grant Activity in Illinois:
    - Received part of initial $86 million award supporting research in Error Reporting, Simulation and Misdiagnosis in FY 2001.
    - Information Technology (Oct. 2004): Health Information Technology projects to improve patient safety and quality of care:
    • $4.6 million was awarded to rural providers and JCAHO) to promote patient safety advances in information;
    • $18.5 million was awarded to research affiliate of the University of Chicago for National Health Information Technology Resource Center, national clearinghouse of information technology tools and best practices.
       
  • John H. Stroger Jr. Cook County Hospital, Chicago, and Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, are joint recipients of an AHRQ grant to study and address systemic improvements for diagnosis error. This is the nation’s first and only project addressing this aspect of medical errors.
     
  • The University of Chicago Hospitals, in conjunction with Columbia University in New York, was awarded approximately $7 million in AHRQ grant funding for research projects to improve patient safety.
     

  • Earns ANCC Magnet Recognition Status
    The Magnet recognition program is a voluntary recognition program developed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center to acknowledge health care organizations that provide the best in professional nursing practice and patient care. The program is a multi-year process requiring significant time and financial commitments, including site visits and substantial application fees. To date, the following Illinois hospitals have earned this distinguished award:

    • Advocate Christ Medical Center, Oak Lawn
    • Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago
    • Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge
    • Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago
    • Delnor-Community Hospital, Geneva
    • Edward Hospital, Naperville
    • Memorial Hospital, Belleville
    • Memorial Medical Center, Springfield
    • Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, Peoria
    • Northwest Community Hospital, Arlington Heights
    • Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, Chicago
    • OSF St. Anthony Medical Center, Rockford
    • OSF St. Francis Medical Center, Peoria
    • Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
    • Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
    • University of Chicago Hospitals, Chicago

     

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  • Twenty-seven hospitals participated in CMS’ QIO Collaborative on Surgical Infection Prevention in 2004; the lessons they learned are helping Illinois in its approach to the Hospital Report Card Act as well as other states.
     
  • Six Illinois hospitals are participating in the Chicago Pediatric Safety Consortium, a program to study problems in children’s medical care, to develop intervention strategies to prevent problems, and to test the effectiveness of the strategies.
     
  • Illinois Hospitals and public libraries have teamed up to participate in the Community Patient Safety Awareness Program to raise consumer/public awareness of patient safety. The program is funded by a grant from the National Library of Medicine. Participants include:
    - Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
    - Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital, Dixon and Dixon Public Library
    - Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago and Chicago Public Library
    - Alexian Brothers Medical Center, Elk Grove Village and Schaumburg Township Public Library
    - Ingalls Memorial Hospital, Harvey and Harvey Public Library
    - Rush North Shore Medical Center, Skokie and Skokie Public Library
     
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  • Advocate Health Care is the first in the Midwest to utilize electronic ICUs covering eight hospitals.
     
  • The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago received the Nicolas E. Davies Award in 2001 in recognition of for its innovative and integrated electronic health record system.
     
  • Advocate Health Care, Oak Brook, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Rockford Health System, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and Rush-Copley Medical Center, Aurora were recognized as "100 Most Wired" in 2005 by Hospital & Health Networks magazine. Silver Cross Hospital, Joliet and the University of Chicago Hospitals were named "Most Improved."
     
  • Alexian Brothers Medical Center, Elk Grove Village, Lake Forest Hospital, CGH Hospital, Sterling, and OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington, participated in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 2001-2002 project to enhance patient safety by refining hospitals’ medication processes.
     
  • Alexian Brothers Medical Center, Elk Grove Village, Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, and OSF St. Anthony Medical Center, Rockford, are among 57 health care organizations in 27 states that are charter members of a new Institute for Healthcare Improvement network dedicated to significantly improving patient care in five critical areas, including patient safety.
     
  • Condell Medical Center, Libertyville, was named to the "Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship," a year-long program jointly sponsored by the AHA Health Forum and the National Patient Safety Foundation. Project activities focused on creating "cultures of safety" in health care.
     
  • Decatur Memorial Hospital – former IHA Board Chairman Ken Smithmier says he has been pleasantly surprised by community reaction to his hospital’s first experiment with public disclosure. The hospital ran a full-page ad in a recent Sunday newspaper highlighting quality measures such as infection and mortality rates, staffing measures such as RN turnover and vacancy rates, and a financial summary. 
     
  • Northwest Community Healthcare, Arlington Heights, and Trinity Medical Center, Rock Island, received 2001 Excellence Awards from the Lincoln Foundation for demonstrating improvement in their management, processes and quality. The Lincoln Foundation recognizes organizations that successfully meet standards of excellence using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria.
     
  • Oak Park Hospital, a member of the Rush System for Health, has deployed new patient "smart" pumps that offer greater accuracy and safety for the delivery of intravenous medications to patients. Each pump is equipped with computers that are programmed with medication concentrations specific to Oak Park Hospital. The safety feature goes to work when the nurse enters select patient and drug information. Unsafe concentrations prompt immediate alerts.
     
  • One-hundred-twelve Illinois hospitals have earned recognition from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Emergency Medical Services for Children for having essential resources and capabilities to meet the emergency needs of seriously ill and injured children. The voluntary recognition program involves continuous quality improvement projects focused on patient safety.

Please join our list of patient safety leaders by sending a brief example of your hospital's patient safety accomplishments to Cathy Grossi.

revised 2/07