The news announces that 122,300 lives have been saved in the past eighteen months. Was some great new vaccine discovered? Is there a cure for cancer? Has a great war come to a halt? The answer may well save your life or the life of someone you love. It’s an answer that came from a doctor who acted from love, not fear…
These lives have been saved through the leadership and initiative of one person. Years ago, a physician named Don Berwick had a bad experience in a hospital. More specifically, his wife had a series of bad experiences. Dr. Berwick, a prominent Harvard-affiliate physician, watched in horror as caregivers at one of America’s great hospitals made mistake after mistake in the care of his spouse.
Whether sophisticated enough to recognize it or not, many have experienced trouble at the hands of careless, overworked or undertrained caregivers. Yet who does anything about it other then, perhaps, make a solitary complaint or file a single lawsuit that changes almost nothing?
Dr. Berwick is different. To the benefit of hundreds of thousands, most of whom he will never meet, he launched a very special and powerful campaign. How could hospital-based mistakes be reduced?
First, he needed data to motivate change. This data was developed, demontrating to the shock of the country the astonishingly large number of preventable deaths from hospital-based errors including hospital-acquired, or nosocomial infections and medication errors.
Next, Dr. Berwick and his team developed a love-based initiative built around six criteria – from deploying rapid response teams for patients experiencing sudden change in vital signs to systems for reducing medication errors.
Being right, it turns out, even having the right systems isn’t enough. It takes persistence to make such a worthy campaign succeed. 3100 hospitals were enlisted to take part in the project. Eighteen months into the effort, the estimates emerged: 122,300 lives saved!
All of this because a physician who loved all patients enough to chose to do more than simply help improve his wife’s care. He chose to commit to improve treatment for ALL patients in ALL hospitals.
The Baptist Healing Trust wishes to pay tribute to a great American, a hero in the effort to improve loving care by strengthening safety. If your loved one has an error-free stay in American hospital, you might think of sending a thank you note to Don Berwick, M.D. – a person who has given a great gift to the America, and to the world of healing healthcare.
Journal of Sacred Work 
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