Ohio hospitals start new patient safety initiative

An a kick-off event at the State House yesterday, 24 Ohio hospitals announced plans to work together to reduce errors and improve patient safety (Source: “Hospitals cooperate to trim errors,” Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 16, 2009).

The collaboration, called Solutions for Patient Safety, consists of all 16 hospitals in Central Ohio, plus all eight children’s hospitals in the state. Cardinal Health, Ohio Business Roundtable, Central Ohio Hospital Council, Ohio Hospital Association and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association have all announced their support of the project.

The hospitals plan to begin sharing data on hospital infections and medication errors and also will share best practices.

"We'll be learning from each other and especially learning from things that don't work," said Dr. Uma Kotagal, senior vice president of quality at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "This is an acknowledgement that we're not as good as we think we are."