The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has been successful in its previous 100,000 Lives and 5 Million Lives campaigns in reducing needless death and injury. The newest campaign, the IHI Improvement Map, focuses on implementation of process interventions proven to achieve high levels of performance.

The Improvement Map consists of fifteen interventions which cover the entire landscape of outstanding hospital care. Some of the interventions are new, including implementation of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. The checklist includes essential safety steps for surgical teams to perform before induction of anesthesia, before skin incision and before the patient leaves the operating room.

As part of the Nebraska Surgical Safety Campaign, we are asking each Nebraska hospital that performs surgical procedures to agree by July 15, 2009 to have one surgical team test the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist by September 1, 2009. Once tested, we encourage hospitals to adopt the checklist into standard practice and share lessons learned with other Nebraska hospitals.

CIMRO of Nebraska and the Nebraska Hospital Association will continue to serve as Nebraska’s Campaign Node for this project. As the state node we have committed to supporting Nebraska hospitals in their participation. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska (BCBSNE) is also a supporting partner.

For more information about the campaign and how to enroll, see the overview of the project located in the documents section.