Like all hospitals, Winchester Hospital has its share of preventable harm events and, like all hospitals, it is constantly striving to improve. In 2008, Winchester Hospital experienced 108 preventable harm events in five categories: serious medication errors; surgical site infections; ventilator-associated pneumonia; falls with serious injury; and central line-associated bloodstream infections. At the close of 2010, this number had dropped to four. The goal for 2011 is zero. Winchester's passion for improvement inspired leaders at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to invite hospital leaders and staff to share these results at an international webinar. A team of health care leaders from Denmark that participated in the webinar subsequently sent staff members to visit Winchester Hospital to learn first-hand from our performance improvement efforts.

This article details some of Winchester Hospital's remarkable achievements.