restorARTively

Modern Healthcare Magazine is now accepting votes for the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare. After receiving thousands of nominations the editors have settled on a final nominee list of 300. The list will be published in their August 2009 issue. So, in August you can celebrate or be disappointed, or maybe terrified, depending on whom got the most votes. With all due respect for the passion and dedication these nominees share in their work, these lists of “Most of Anything” are fallibly constructed. There really isn't any data or studies or professional evaluations for its worth. It reminds me of the voting that will happen today at my daughter’s school for 7th grade class president. It’s who you know, how many people will campaign for you, and how many friends you have. Does this exercise in health care have merit while there is so much attention and pleas for restoring health to the healthcare system itself? Or is it an exercise in perpetuating the problems by exploiting the ...

For the past two weeks, a discussion thread on the National Patient Safety Listserv (which has around 3000 members) focused on apologies after preventable medical errors. The igniter was a letter crafted by a British physician to the family of a deceased patient whom he acknowledged his actions harmed. The reactions to this doctor’s unusual step were extensive, varied, sometimes defensive and sometimes offensive. Among the first acknowledgements were that it was poorly written. Some argued that it was unnecessary. Others argued that this doctor did wrong by the profession by being accountable for systems’ errors. I wondered if the family had asked for this information. I wondered if it caused them more harm or if it helped them. Regardless, the doctor’s fortitude was impressive. Whether you agree or not that the physician is responsible for the patient’s death, it should be acknowledged that the individual is being a moral agent for change. Parker Palmer, a celebrated educator and...

The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority has recently released its Annual report for 2008. The Authority begins by stating that it is “just at the beginning of a journey and we have a long way to go.” The Authority was been at work on this for the past five years; the Institute of Medicine watershed report, “To Err is Human” is ten years old. It has been a decade. In that decade approximately 933514 lives have been lost to preventable medical errors in the US healthcare system. This excusatory beginning to the report is indicative of the entire report. The overall tone of the language used within the report increasingly diminishes the importance and relevance of any patient death or injury. "But” or “that is only..." was used repeatedly in the report. One death is one too many. All this language succeeds in is to stunt any natural response a healthcare provider may be feeling about the loss of one his/her patients. Deep within he report, you will find meaningful data on wh...