A second look at 100 000 lives campaign

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI's) 100 000 Lives Campaign provided a valuable service by focusing attention on quality improvement in health care. The recent release of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) statistics on 2006 hospital admissions provides an opportunity to reexamine the achievements of the 100 000 Lives Campaign. The AHRQ estimates of hospital deaths report a decrease of 23623 between 2004 and 2006, which casts considerable doubt on the IHI claim of 122300 lives saved. The article addresses the disparity in estimates of preventable deaths, recent trends in hospital mortality, ways of reconciling the AHRQ estimates with the IHI claim, and the lessons that should be learned from the campaign.