Three of the nation's leading hospital systems on Thursday announced a plan to combat the growing
epidemic of medical errors in hospitals by developing the first comprehensive approach to patient safety. The Safest Hospital Alliance, comprised of Wellmont Health System, Adventist Health System and Novant Health, will tackle an issue that the Institute of Medicine rates as the
eighth-leading cause of death in the United States, higher than motor-vehicle crashes, breast cancer or AIDS.    

An estimated 98,000 hospital deaths occur annually from medical errors. These mistakes carry with them approximately $37.6 billion in additional charges, including $17 billion associated with preventable errors.  While there have been many piecemeal approaches to patient safety, a total solution has remained elusive, in part due to the lack of standardized benchmarks for comparing the performance of healthcare professionals.    

By creating metrics and identifying best practices, the alliance's Safest Hospital Initiative will seek to specifically define how a truly "safe" hospital should function and provide treatment to its patients.    

"The healthcare industry has been waiting for a perfect system," said Dr. Richard Salluzzo, president and chief executive officer of Wellmont Health System and founder of the Safest Hospital Alliance. "We can no longer wait. We're not doing this because we've been forced to by government-mandated changes in the healthcare industry. We're doing it because it's right."  

Dramatic improvements may be evident within a year, but over a two-year period, the alliance will focus on one to three core processes that cut across the hospital organization, seeking to close the gap between current performance and perfection by 80 percent. There is also significant financial benefit to improved patient safety. Preliminary estimates suggest that implementing the safest hospital template could reduce healthcare costs by 20 to 30 percent.