Funding is requested to support a conference to disseminate evidence-based tools and methods developed during the AHRQ-funded project """"""""Statewide Efforts to Improve Care in Intensive Care Units."""""""" The estimated date for the planned conference is June 16, 2006. Tools used in the collaborative and discussed during the Conference include methods to improve patient safety; improve safety culture; reduce nosocomial infections including catheter-related blood stream infections (CR-BSIs) and ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) and reduce ICU mortality and ICU length of stay. These tools were successfully implemented and resulted in improvements in patient care and safety in a collaborative that included over 125 Michigan ICUs. In addition to the researchers and hospital association executives who carried out the research, speakers include members of teams who participated in the project. These critical care providers will share important lessons learned in the project about implementing successful change programs in the ICU. Thus, the conference represents a unique opportunity to translate research into practice. During conference session, participants will learn about: evidence-based tools to improve care and patient outcomes used during the Keystone ICU project, results of improvements in patient outcomes resulting from the use of these project developed tools, implementing the tools in the ICU to improve patient care and outcomes in other clinical settings, and lessons learned by the Keystone ICU teams while putting the tools into practice. Approximately 250-300 hospital executives, intensive care professionals, representatives of state hospital associations and integrated health care systems/networks are expected to attend. This conference represents an opportunity to widely disseminate evidence-based tools and learn how they may be successfully implemented in the ICU environment.
