What did the 5 Million Lives accomplish?
Participants in the 5 Million Lives Campaign (and its predecessor, the 100,000 Lives Campaign) made exciting progress since the launch of the first initiative in December 2004. In the past few years, hospitals across the US have made unprecedented commitments to quality and patient safety, with many demonstrating impressive results. At its formal close in December 2008, the Campaign celebrated the enrollment of 4,050 hospitals, with more than 2,000 facilities pursuing each of the Campaign’s 12 interventions to reduce infection, surgical complication, medication errors, and other forms of unreliable care in facilities. Eight states enrolled 100% of their hospitals in the Campaign, and 18 states enrolled over 90% of their hospitals in the Campaign. A field office (“Node”) manages local improvement activity in every state, and the Campaign identified 200 hospitals as mentors—teachers of peer facilities on all 12 of the Campaign’s interventions. Every day we witnessed great innovation and