The Conversation Project is dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care. Download the numerous free Getting Started Kits and other resources developed to help people have "the conversation."
Composed of international thought leaders with a common interest in patient safety, the IHI Lucian Leape Institute functions as a think tank to identify new approaches to improving patient safety and encourage the innovation necessary to expedite progress. Recent work includes development of a resource to help leaders create and sustain safety cultures in their organizations and research into the public’s view of patient safety.
Led by IHI and composed of representatives from the health care, policy, regulatory, and advocacy communities, the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety is charged with developing a national strategy for reducing harm in the delivery of health care.
Strategic Initiatives — Completed
The 5 Million Lives Campaign was a voluntary initiative to protect patients from five million incidents of medical harm over the next two years (December 2006 – December 2008).
The Rapid Response Network featured twice-weekly 20-minute National Nursing Home Huddles to provide real-time, pragmatic solutions that can be implemented in nursing homes today to solve many of the key problems brought about or exacerbated by COVID-19.
Danish Safer Hospital Program
Five selected hospitals in Denmark have committed to optimize patient safety in their clinical settings and to become the safest hospitals in the country. The Danish Safer Hospital Program aims to reduce mortality by 15% and harm by 30%.
How Will We Do That? Building Low-Cost, High-Quality Health Care Regions in America
The goal for
How Will We Do That? was to build awareness among the American public and policy makers that successful models for achieving high-quality care at significantly reduced cost already exist in many regions and in many forms throughout the US.
The aim of the Idealized Design of Clinical Office Practices (IDCOP) initiative was to demonstrate that clinical office practices, with appropriate redesign, can achieve significant improvements in performance to meet today’s urgent social needs for higher-value health care.
IHI Triple Aim Prototyping Initiative
The IHI Triple Aim is an IHI learning initiative to better understand new models that can improve the individual patient experience and the health of entire communities, at a reasonable per capita cost.
Impacting Cost + Quality
Leaders from pioneering organizations have come together to work on the most significant health care leadership challenge of our time. They are identifying and driving out waste in their systems while improving the quality of care delivered to patients.
Improving Health Care Quality in South Africa
IHI’s work in South Africa began in 2004 and has since then grown to include programs in five provinces. In collaboration with local partners, the projects have contributed to the evolution of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS, and increased access to treatment and testing of HIV/AIDs.
Improving Patient Care for Indian Health Service
This initiative aims to improve health and promote wellness for American Indians and Alaska Natives. The adapted Chronic Care Model serves as a framework to improve the health status of patients and populations by reducing the prevalence and impact of multiple conditions.
Improving Population Health Action Community
An 11-month initiative to help health care delivery organizations accelerate progress toward population health, well-being, and equity.
With a focus on individuals with mental health and substance abuse issues who present to the emergency department, US hospitals and their community partners participating in this 18-month Learning Community tested changes to improve patient outcomes and experience of care and staff safety while also decreasing avoidable, repeat visits to the ED for this patient population.
The Joint Learning Network (JLN) is focused on assisting 10 countries in Asia and Africa that are striving to provide universal health coverage to their populations.
MaiKhanda in Malawi
MaiKhanda is a collaboration between IHI, Women and Children First, the University College London's Institute of Child Health, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and the Reproductive Health Unit of the Ministry of Health. MaiKhanda, which began in 2006, is supported by The Health Foundation (based in the UK) and focuses on reducing maternal and neonatal mortality.
The New Health Partnerships initiative seeks to use behavior change and health care system models to develop and test the most effective and efficient approaches for providing support to patients of a sort which enables and encourages greater patient self-management, while at the same time stimulating greater patient engagement in efforts to improve the design and delivery of health care services and systems.
Project Fives Alive! in Ghana
Project Fives Alive! began in 2008 and ended in 2015, and was a collaboration between IHI and the National Catholic Health Service. The project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, worked to assist Ghana in achieving Millennium Development Goal 4 (reducing morbidity and mortality in children under five).
Project JOINTS (Joining Organizations IN Tackling SSIs) is an initiative funded by the federal government to spread the Enhanced SSI Prevention Bundle (also known as the Enhanced Surgical Bundle). The Enhanced Surgical Bundle is designed to prevent Surgical Site Infections in patients undergoing hip and knee arthroplasty.
IHI was the National Program Office for Pursuing Perfection, a major initiative of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, designed to create models of excellence at a select number of provider organizations that are redesigning all of their major care processes.
Safer Patients Network
Launched in June 2009, the Safer Patients Network in the UK continues to build on the safety expertise gained in the Safer Patients Initiative. The focus of the Safer Patients Network is to develop and test new approaches to patient safety, build improvement capability within the health system, and spread safety improvements across the national systems in the UK.
Scottish Patient Safety ProgrammeNHSScotland is the first health service in the world to adopt a national approach to improving patient safety. Acute hospitals across the country are taking part in a dedicated drive to ensure that patients receive even safer care by reliably introducing evidence-based changes to practice.
The STate Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations (STAAR) initiative aims to reduce rehospitalizations by working across organizational boundaries in three states — Massachusetts, Michigan, and Washington — and by engaging payers, state and national stakeholders, patients and families, and caregivers at multiple care sites and clinical interfaces.
Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) was a unique innovation initiative of IHI and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that aimed to create, test, and implement changes that would dramatically improve care on medical/surgical units, and improve staff satisfaction as well.
