| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Contacts: Lawrence Becker
Laurel Pickering
, x13 |
NEW YORK PARTNERSHIP FOR IMPROVING PATIENT SAFETY FORMED
Unique Collaboration of Business, Hospitals, Doctors and Health Plans Support Regional Rollout of The Leapfrog Group
Xerox and NYBGH Serve as Co-Chairs
New York, NY (September 4, 2002) - Local businesses, hospitals, providers, and health plans have joined together to form the New York Partnership for Improving Patient Safety (NYPIPS) as part of the New York Regional roll-out of The Leapfrog Groupís patient safety initiative in New York. The Leapfrog Group, is a Business Roundtable-sponsored program dedicated to improving patient safety. The Leapfrog Group designated the New York Metropolitan area as one of 12 geographic areas of concentration in 2002 and selected Xerox Corporation and the New York Business Group on Health to lead the rollout in this area.
"As a major health care purchaser for more than 175,000 people, we have a responsibility to provide them with safe health care, but we cannot improve patient safety on our own," said Larry Becker, title Director, Benefits of for Xerox. "We need the help and support of strong leaders in the New York Metropolitan areaís health care community, and consumers need information to help them make informed decisions about where to seek care."
The Leapfrog Group supports the implementation of three proven standards to prevent medical mistakes in hospitals: 1) The use of computerized computer physician order entry systems (CPOE); 2) Staffing intensive care units (ICUs) with specialists trained in critical care medicine; and 3) Selecting hospitals with the best results or extensive experience for select high-risk conditions and procedures (evidence-based hospital referral). Research conducted by John D. Birkmeyer, M.D., Dartmouth Medical School, indicates that these three improvements could save up to 58,300 lives per year, and prevent 522,000 medication errors, if implemented by all non-rural hospitals in the United States.
As a first step, NYPIPS sent letters to all urban, acute care hospitals in the New York area urging them to demonstrate their support for patient safety by voluntarily completing The Leapfrog Groupís online survey regarding their facilityís progress towards the implementation of three proven patient practices identified by Leapfrog.
Many local hospitals have already completed the survey and meet the Leapfrog standards. NYPIPS hopes that by bringing key stakeholders in the health care delivery system together under the umbrella of patient safety, more hospitals will complete the survey.
NYPIPS and its individual member organizations will also work to recognize and reward hospitals that implement these proven safety practices. In addition, the group will develop programs to educate and inform consumers about preventable medical mistakes and the importance of choosing hospitals that meet Leapfrogís recommended hospital patient safety practices when making elective health care choices.
Organizations interested in participating in NYPIPS should call x.13.  About NYPIPS: NYPIPS is a voluntary partnership between key stakeholders in the health care delivery system including employers, hospitals, physicians, health plans and consumers organizations. The goal is to draw attention to important issues surrounding patient safety in an effort to help reduce the number of patients harmed or killed by medical errors.
About The Leapfrog Group: The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 by the Business Roundtable and has support from the National Health Care Purchasing Institute. More than 100 Fortune 500 corporations and other large private and public sector health benefits purchasers have joined the Leapfrog Group initiative, representing more than 31 million enrollees. To date they have rolled out their initiative in 19 regions across the country, including Atlanta; California; East Tennessee; Minnesota; Seattle-Tacoma-Everett; Michigan; Kansas City, MO; New York Metro; Dallas/Fort Worth; Savannah, GA; Rochester, NY; Central Florida; Wichita KS; Colorado, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Massachusetts.
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