One man. Five steps. Five thousand lives saved.
Dr. Peter Pronovost ’87 was inspired by Cerel King, a’ mother who lost her daughter in an emergency room visit, and came back to the same place five years later, wondering aloud if anything would have been different had the incident happened in the present day.
‘Her daughter died due to preventable mistakes,’ Pronovost said. ‘I couldn’t give her an answer, the American health care system couldn’t give her an answer, and I thought she deserved better.’
From the moment forward, Pronovost took it upon himself to make significant chances to the medical system in hopes that if ever the case arose again, he would be sure it would have a different outcome.
Pronovost developed a five-step plan for hospitals to prevent infection in intensive care units and maintain sterility.
Across the country his system has helped save thousands of lives.
He was recently recognized as a MacArthur Fellow and was awarded a $500,000 ‘no strings attached’ Fellow award in order to continue his quest improve the ‘delivery of health care’ keep patients safe during their stay in hospitals.
Pronovost is the only Fairfield alumi to ever be named a MacArthur Fellow.
Pronovost acknowledged how amazing the reward is, and how it is so different from typical grants or other research funds.
‘The reward is unique because they trust the recipient,’ he said.’ ‘There is no micro-managing, no reports that must be submitted. The MacArthur foundation basically says we trust your vision. We know your making the world better. Keep doing it in any way you think we can support.’
A statement released by the MacArthur foundation spoke very highly of Pronovost stating,
‘He is sparing countless lives from the often deadly consequences of human error and setting new standards of health care performance in the United States and internationally.’
Pronovost was also named to TIME magazine’s TIME 100, a list of the world’s most influential people, in the Scientists and Thinkers category.
In the U.S., hospital-acquired infections affect one in 10 patients, killing 90,000 individuals and costing upwards of $11 billion per year, according to TIME. Pronovost’s protocols could be applied nationwide within two years and cost less than $3 million.
Pronovost began his quest by analyzing the basic procedure of line insertions into patients and why patients often fell into bloodstream infections. Although this common procedure is done thousands of times a day, he put the technique under the microscope and came away with some startling results.
‘For every dollar the American government puts into new drug research, one penny is given to the delivery of heath care,’ he said. ‘I wanted to take scholarly approach to new research and put that into the delivery in how health care is delivered.’
Pronovost devised a simple five-step checklist every doctor was abided to adhere to, but found that these basic steps were often overlooked in busy hospitals.
He extensively tested his hypothesis, and found that reasons for such infections were stemming directly from failure to follow basic procedure. After much monitoring and field testing, his theory was proved to be true, and was put into practice in hospitals around the nation.
After publishing his results, Michigan hospitals adopted his checklists and within three months, hospital-acquired infections dropped from 2.7 per 1,000 patients to zero. An estimated 1,500 lives were saved in the first 18 months according to TIME.
‘I run the Center for Quality Safety research group which we research health care delivery tactics and implement them globally,’ Pronovost said. ‘Far too many people suffer preventable harm costs in health care; we haven’t put evidence into practice to the extent that we need to.’
‘I wanted to take the same scholarly approach that is used for new drug research, and put that into the delivery of health care,’ he added.
Currently, Pronovost is a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he holds an additional appointment in the Department of Surgery. Pronovost also serves as director of the Johns Hopkins-affiliated Quality and Safety Research Group.
University President Fr. Jeffery von Arx was thrilled to hear the news of Pronovost’s accomplishment and said the University as a whole is proud of his award.
‘We are so proud of the important advances Peter has made in improving the survival rate among critical care patients and applaud his selection as a MacArthur Fellow,’ he said.
‘His creativity and commitment to improving the lives of patients represent the finest qualities of a Jesuit education and we wish him the very best as he continues this vital work,’ von Arx said.
Most undergraduate pre-med majors were unfamiliar with the magnitude and importance of the award, but were still happy to hear that someone who once walked in their exact shoes has done something so great.
‘It feels gratifying to know that an alumnus of the same program that I am currently enrolled in has achieved such great honor,’ said Tom Brennan ’10 a biology and pre-med major. ‘He has the same skill set that I will hopefully graduate with and I can only hope I am half as successful as he was.’
Pronovost said he took many valuable Jesuit lessons away from him after graduating from Fairfield, especially applications of his faith.
‘I have learned to see Jesus in everyone, and hold myself personally accountable for what I do,’ he said. ‘If you imagine your speaking to Jesus, it is much easier to not always be in contention with them, but rather learn to work together.
‘Tolerance, respect, and the ability to work with others were all qualities I learned in the Fairfield community,’ said Pronovost.
‘I view myself as a servant of the people, not as someone who holds power over them.’
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