restorARTively

Just in case you didn't hear yet - there is no such thing as the United Nations International Health Organization. I received an email forward from a dear friend who really means well. Unfortunately, there are many hoaxes and scare tactics being used to influence good hearted people that might just be too busy taking care of everyone else. This email is one of them. And there is no such article ever printed or considered for print by the Investor's Business Daily. Google it and you will find several references to this BOGUS article. The email forwards subject line is usually something to the effect: "Your Christmas Present from the Govt that you Never Asked for." The only people getting a Christmas present from the Senate & House bills are the insurance companies. Here are some current and interesting pieces on the health care issue: Statistically speaking this IS accurate: A Global Health care Snapshot from WSJ http://www.marketwatch.com/health-care/reform/snapsh...

"These are very complex issues, but it is really all about relationships." ~Madeline Albright , first female United States Secretary of State Whether international relations, law building or health care delivery it is all about the relationships. Not only the relationships between insurance companies and the insured, but also between insurance companies and the uninsured, between physicians, between physicians and nurses, between risk managers and the patients who walk through the door. Some of these entities never cross paths in person but they have a direct impact on each other's choices an decisions in medical care. My youngest son spent a full week in the NICU before coming home. The twenty four hour access to their new babies that parents are offered on 8 Ravdin at The University of Pennsylvania NICU allows relationships to be built. Relationships are built between parents and the clinicians, parents and other parents, and especially between parents and their n...

There has been a lot of direction from health care providers to patients in the past ten years since the release of the infamous Institute of Medicine report. I thought perhaps the providers and physicians could use some simple suggestions and requests from the patients to encourage safe care. What do you suggest for changes, deletions and additions? #1. Speak up! The most well-known and respected health care safety organizations ( AHRQ , IHI , TJC , NPSF , NQF , CAPS, WHO Alliance for Patient Safety) all agree that communication is the key element in successful outcomes. As a health care provider you are a key participant in the treatment team. If you see or hear that care being provided to a patient falls below the current standards, is at risk, risky, or questionable your willingness to speak up may have a direct impact on the outcome of care. #2. Maintain Accurate Medication & Treatment Records! As a health care provider, you must take responsibility for drafting and maintainin...

I came back from the beach last night to exhibit PULSE of PA and Henry the Hand Foundation information at my state senator, Daylin Leach's, Kids Expo. On Saturday I was at Congressman Sestak's Working family Summit . Teaching families the importance of proper hand hygiene is the most basic way of preventing medical errors. It is so simple. On Saturday however people were more concerned with yelling their agreement or disagreement to the Congressman on how he voted for the Health Care Reform bill that made it through the house. Tonight, parents were more interested in getting as many freebies as possible for their children. "Oh we use hand sanitizer anyway." (Hand sanitizer is dangerous for children.) It was still important to be there and contribute to the prevention of illness and disease among young children. Selfishly it also helps me keep my son's memory alive. I was indulged by the conversation I shared with the gentleman from Haverford Township's Re...

I will be there with a variety of health care safety information including how to keep children and their families healthy as the school year begins. 7th Congressional District of Pennsylvania Working Family Resources Summit Saturday August 1, 2009 Interboro High School16th and Amousland Road, Prospect Park PA 19076 This venue is air conditioned and handicap accessible. Registration: 9:30 AM Event: 10:00AM – 1:00PM As the result of our Nation’s extraordinary economic recession, I have seen families throughout the 7th Congressional District struggle across three generations to cope with historically high unemployment, record foreclosure rates, loss of pension plans, devalued homes, rising costs of education, expensive health care, and the ever-present threat of increased energy prices. Although I am aggressively working with my colleagues in Congress to address these issues legislatively, and through my constituent office to engage the unique problems of individuals, I believe more mus...

Contacts:Mary Ellen Mannix , Founder, PULSE of PA 610-299-0478 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JULY 15, 2009 LUCIAN LEAPE , M.D. RECEIVES 1st NIGHTINGALE & CODMAN PATIENT SAFETY DAY AWARD PULSE of PA is proud to collaborate with national patient safety advocates who have bestowed the Inaugural Florence Nightingale and Dr. E. Codman Patient Safety Day Award to LUCIAN LEAPE M.D., Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health, pediatric surgeon, and health care safety pioneer. July 25, 2009 is the 9 th annual Patient Safety Day and the 10 th anniversary of the Institute of Medicine’s groundbreaking patient safety in America report to Congress. Florence Nightingale was one of the first epidemiologists, statisticians, evidence-based practitioners and patient safety pioneers in nursing and health care . Dr. Codman followed suit with a stellar surgical career based on hospital evidence-based “end results” theory and practice.Nightingale and Codman represented the ...

Unless you have been under a rock the past two months, you are aware of the current push by our new president to reform health care in the United States. Because of the priority he has given this issue, health care is squarely centered under a national microscope. Finally difficult aspects of our health care system are beginning to be revealed publicly. This has encouraged fuller discussions. We are closer to accepting what the real "disease" in our system is - preventable medical errors. The president and congress are using the term "quality". Today Pennsylvania's Governor has taken a page out of President Obama's playbook by airing on YouTube his arguments for his budget proposal which includes an increase in taxes and Medicaid cuts. Hospital administrators have warned that if the Governor's plan passes as is there could be 8,0000+ job losses in the industry and that there would be inevitable cuts in trauma, obstetrics and burn care. ( Burling ...

A few recent developments have set me off balance: The WSJ OpEd piece, a collection of health risk managers, and a group of fellow heart moms who successfully diminished the impact of my son's loss and the work I did in seven years to understand his death and offer compassion to his medical providers. I am reminded that the health care system has known about the life-threatening issues within its profession for well over ten years. They know them so well the common comparison is made to air travel. The amount of deaths each year to preventable medical errors is equal to a jumbo jet crashing every day leaving no survivors. This brought memory of the words of Susan Cohen. Her daughter, Theo, was one of the passengers killed on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1998. "There was the grief group therapist who told me she was worried about my anger, that I should open my heart. .... It was an open, bleeding wound......I didn't need anyone telling me there was something wrong with my enorm...

I presented my son's one way ticket to heaven and my subsequent journey to hell and back via health care with a small group of health risk managers this morning. The informal restorative practices that I implemented on my own after nothing else worked can serve as an example of what patients and providers can do for themselves. It is possible for them to talk even after errors and mistakes. Hopefully, our story can make a difference for another patient & provider in conflict. Most of the audience understood the importance of proactive restorative circles in health care. The idea of reactive restoration was more of a challenge. One mentioned they had to tell patients we cant talk to you while we are investigating these care concerns. I asked "What will it take for you to include the patient and family in the investigation?" I asked, "Why don't you tell the patient, 'we are investigating what happened and would like your input?'" The most revealin...

"Now the doctor, by virtue of accepting science so totally, creates a total imbalance, forgetting the art of healing, forgetting the art of engagement, forgetting the art of listening, forgetting the art of caring and ceasing to invest time with the patient. So I believe medicine has lost its human face.” ~ Dr. Bernard Lown Doctors do not like to be shamed or blamed. Neither do nurses. Nor surgeons. As a matter of fact, any query from a patient to the healthcare provider is received as critique of job performance. Much of this is a result of the disconnect between physicians and their patients. Physician, by the way, is the term I prefer to use over “doctor” since learning the definition variations: per Merriam Webster dictionary a physician “heals” and a doctor “has been awarded a medical license” (Webster, 2005). This is a worthwhile difference to note when seeking quality medical care. Dr. Bernard Lown described in his book, “The Lost Art of Healing” his inspirat...