Bengaluru: For Iranian-born American entrepreneur Massi Joe E. Kiani, the concept of zero preventable deaths is close to heart. He is the founder of Patient Safety Movement, which was started in 2013 to bring down the number of preventable hospital deaths in the United States to zero by 2020. He was in the city on Monday to talk about how procedural changes could help bring down hospital-acquired infections.
He acknowledged that the problem is far more complicated in a country like India where government hospitals are over-burdened and lack facilities.
"The first thing is that governments should make hospitals more accountable. If all hospitals are required to report all cases of preventable infections, it would help in finding the root of the problem and making procedural corrections," said Mr. Kiani. "Governments should come up with incentives for hospitals to follow due process, such as not allowing them to take fees from the patient’s kin in case the patient dies due to a preventable infection," he added.
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Aside from documenting errors and ensuring hygiene through methods such as ensuring a doctor washes his hands before and after touching a patient, Mr. Kiani advocates continuous digital monitoring of patients post-surgery to pick up sudden fluctuations in condition.
"For example, if the patient's vital statistics are continuously monitored even after they are moved back to the ward, a nurse would be able to notice immediately when the patient's oxygen level drops," he said. And while implementing such technology would be an additional cost to the hospital, in the long run it would pay back for itself by reducing the number of cases that were sent back to intensive care.
Seven private hospitals in the city have agreed to join the movement and utilise procedural techniques to reduce the number of preventable hospital deaths.
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