A 2016 study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that preventable deaths in hospitals are the third leading cause of death in the US behind heart disease and cancer.[1] The study suggests that medical error leads to more than 250,000 deaths each year in the US, though other studies suggest that number may be as high as 400,000.[1,2]

A growing movement aims to combat these staggering statistics. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, that became the first quantifiable assessment of the impact and consequences of medical errors. The report shed light on an area of national concern and sparked a new focus on patient safety. Now, 20 years later, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation is at the forefront of this important issue and driving change in the healthcare system.

[3]The Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) is a global non‐profit that was formed in 2012 with the goal to reach ZERO preventable deaths by 2020. In 2013, the Foundation convened the first annual Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit to bring together the world’s leading clinicians, hospital CEOs, patient advocates and government leaders to identify primary patient safety challenges and provide tested solutions. From there, hospitals made formal commitments to implement processes to reduce preventable deaths and healthcare technology companies have signed an Open Data Pledge to share data for the sake of patient safety.

In 2019, at the 7th annual Summit, the PSMF announced their growing impact:

• 4,710 hospitals committed to ZERO Preventable Deaths
• 90,146 lives saved annually by committed hospitals (self‐reported)
• 89 healthcare technology companies signed the Open Data Pledge

Additionally, the PSMF’s mission includes unifying the healthcare ecosystem, creating and implementing Actionable Patient Safety Solutions (APSSs), and educating providers, healthcare professionals in training, patients, and families about patient safety.

Contributing to the alarming statistics on preventable patient deaths is a wide range of hospital‐ acquired infections (HAIs) such as surgical site infections (SSIs) and central line‐associated bloodstream infections (CLASBIs). In fact, SSIs are the most common type of hospital‐acquired infection and account for more than 20% of all HAIs.[4] As the hospital subsidiary of Ferndale Pharma Group, Eloquest Healthcare provides specialized products that improve patient outcomes by helping clinicians elevate the quality of care they provide. Our product portfolio is specifically designed to support strategies that prevent hospital acquired infections, post‐op wound contamination, and skin injuries.

At Eloquest Healthcare, our values align with the PSMF’s mission to reduce preventable deaths and improve patient safety. In addition to providing products centered on improving outcomes for patients and caregivers, some of the tangible ways Eloquest Healthcare is demonstrating our commitment to the PSMF include:

1. Spreading the mission of ZERO preventable deaths to the Eloquest Healthcare network
2. Participating in the PSMF’s Actionable Patient Safety Solutions (APSSs) workgroups and helping to identify subject matter experts to contribute to the development of interested topics (ie, device‐associated bloodstream infections, post‐operative wound contamination)
3. Asking Eloquest Healthcare customers who are leaders working in hospitals to implement APSSs, or share their own successful processes, to eliminate preventable deaths (and make their own actionable commitments to the PSMF)
4. Partnering on the PSMF’s APSS webinars around related patient safety topics of interest to Eloquest Healthcare

To learn more about the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, visit www.patientsafetymovement.org.

Eloquest Healthcare is committed to providing solutions that can help reduce the risk of hospital acquired infections. For more information, please contact your sales consultant or Eloquest Healthcare®, Inc., call 1‐877‐433‐7626 or visit www.eloquesthealthcare.com.

1. Makary MA, Daniel M. Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US. BMJ. 2016;353. doi:10.1136/bmj.i2139. 2. James JT. A new, evidence‐based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care. J Patient Saf. 2013;9(3):122‐128. doi:10.1097/PTS.0b013e3182948a69. 3. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation Website. https://patientsafetymovement.org/. Accessed July 18, 2019. 4. Ban KA, Minei JP, Laronga C, et al. American College of Surgeons and Surgical Infection Society: Surgical site infection guidelines, 2016 update. J Am Coll Surg. 2017;1:59‐74.