Ohio hospitals and businesses are working together on a new drive to cut down on two threats to patients when they're IN hospitals --- infections and medication errors. The hospitals plan to share information with each other about what practices work best. Kelly Clark, Chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health, says:
"Each year in Ohio, medication errors injure 60,000 patients, and hospital-acquired infections kill 7,500 patients. And though saving lives would be more than enough to justify this important initiative, there are also additional and significant financial benefits. These preventable errors also cost our state more than $1.5 billion to remedy."
The hospitals plan to focus on cutting down the number of cases where patients get infections from catheters, and where patients are infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.