Intensive Care Checklists Save Michigan Over $100M
NPR's "All Things Considered" on Sunday included a discussion with Peter Pronovost, an intensive care unit specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Atul Gawande, a New Yorker staff writer and a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital, about a checklist system for improving care in ICUs.
Pronovost developed checklists of ICU procedures that were implemented in Michigan ICUs. Within three months, adherence to the checklists increased from 30% to nearly 100% and infection rates dropped to 0%, Gawande said.
The program helped save 1,500 lives and saved the state more than $100 million.
Gawande profiled Pronovost in a recent article in the New Yorker (Seabrook, "All Things Considered," NPR, 12/9).
Audio of the segment is available online.