Why did IHI decide to expand the initiative’s focus to include harm?
We chose the goal of avoiding unnecessary deaths in the 100,000 Lives Campaign because death is the most extreme consequence of defects in our current health care system. Because hospitals made great strides in that initiative, they are now uniquely positioned to broaden their focus on the underlying causes of all types of harm that may occur in the hospital, for we know that for every fatal incident there many times more harm events. Participating facilities cannot and should not tolerate the sheer magnitude of infections, adverse events, and complications that patients endure during any given hospital stay. The work of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and many of its partners is guided by the six aims for American health care articulated in the landmark Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Crossing the Quality Chasm: safety, effectiveness, equity, timeliness, patient-centeredness, and efficiency. These aims translate into IHI’s “no needless list,” which describes even mo
