Saving 100 000 lives in US hospitals

Abstract

Counting lives saved The campaign defines a life saved as a patient who survived a hospital stay who would have died had he or she received that hospital's pre-campaign (2004) level of care.7 It calculates lives saved by comparing a hospital's mortality data for each month during the campaign with mortality data for the corresponding month in 2004. The monthly lives saved are aggregated across all months and all participating hospitals with an adjustment to account for changes in national risk of patient mortality between 2004 and the campaign period. The campaign estimates that, as of April 2006, participating hospitals had saved over 84 000 lives (based on 83% of participating hospitals submitting mortality data).