• Charles R. Denham, MD, Chairman, Texas Medical Institute of Technology (TMIT)
  
  

Part 1

• U.S. is 37th in world in healthcare
• 1 in 5 imaging, 1 in 5 lab studies done because prior info can’t be found; 1 in 7 hospital admissions for same reason
• 1 in 4 seniors goes to 4 pharmacies for his meds
• 1 in 4 hospital patients has an ADE that causes harm
• 100% of hospital patients have a medication error of some type
• When 100 hospital charts are pulled from "exemplar" hospitals and examined with Global Trigger Tool, 35-49 will show AE causing harm to patient; of the 35-49, approximately 7 will have two AEs
• Working with the "Power Trio" [medical leadership, C-suite, Board], organizations have been able to cut these numbers in HALF
• We’ve out-innovated our infrastructure …but it’s not the technology, it’s the sociology

Part 2

• NQF 30 Safe Practices were 1st introduced in 2003 – Dr. Denham was asked to chair update of SPs after 2003 because he was chairman of Leapfrog’s program
• Established a weighting system
• 2006 update was released in March 2007; already working on next generation of SPs [to be done in June 2008] – Congressionally-mandated public review over 6-month period
• We’ll have 30 updated Safe Practices, plus 5 new SPs, to include MRSA, UTIs, "2nd victim," and hand-offs/handovers
• 3,100 hospitals in our research test bed; almost 1,300 hospitals submit to LFG
• Dr. Denham is frequently asked, "What is a great trustee/CEO/PSO?" – he uses Jim Collins’s example: deeply humble, has fierce resolve, dedicated to values
• We need trustees who don’t rubberstamp what administration says but who get really actively involved, have stewardship for the community resource that are our hospitals