By Healthcare Facilities Today

At the second annual Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit, held this month, more than 100 hospitals and med tech companies made public commitments to help reduce preventable patient deaths to zero by 2020 in U.S. hospitals, according to an article on the Power Engineering website.

The commitments and pledges build on previous public pronouncements other healthcare companies and organizations made during the first summit last year, according to the article.

"Those commitments and pledges directly resulted in saving the lives of an estimated 602 patients," Joe Kiani, founder of the Patient Safety Movement and Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation & Competition in Healthcare, said in the article.

More than 60 hospitals and healthcare systems made commitments to help reduce preventable patient deaths. In addition, 20 medical technology companies pledged to make their devices interoperable so the patient data collected and displayed on their products are accessible for patients and clinicians. To date, 29 medical technology companies have made this public pledge, according to the article

"The Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit demonstrates the kind of progress that can be made when healthcare systems, patients and families, industry, government and nonprofit entities cooperate for the greater good - in this case saving more lives," Dr. Mark Chassin, president and CEO of The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, said in the article.

Read the article.