restorARTively

Malpractice Confidentiality Clauses Could Put Others At Risk - Milwaukee News Story - WISN Milwaukee I posted this article on my Facebook page and it produced numerous comments. More than a comment box is necessary to explain my stance on transparency in health care. The underlying principles that guide work in restorative justice/practices under which I work towards education and communication in health care include accountability, respect, honesty, and community (all stakeholders included). These principles acknowledge the human condition/need to be a positive contributor within a community of caring. A group of individuals and institutions engaged in the delivery of or receipt of care to the sick and dying could be defined as a "community of caring." Anything that restricts the employ of accountability, respect, honesty, and community in health care impedes the restoration of health and healing (even in circumstances where dying occurs because there is healing to st...

Take a minute to read the articles linked to below then please share your thoughts: Is this a question of the conflict of the separation of church and state? What is the child died after they sought medical care as well? If a child dies in a parents arms who has not sought medical treatment, the parent is criminally liable and it is acceptable to put them in jail. In contrast: If a child dies in a medical setting from preventable errors after the parents have sought medical care of a trained health care provider, it is not acceptable to for the provider to be held criminally liable and serve jail time. What is the disconnect in public sentiment on what to do when an adults chosen course of treatment causes irrevocable harm to a child at the mercy of the adults surrounding him/her? How can this disconnect be repaired, or improved? These are not easy questions to consider; but consider them we must because people are "doing time" for what others have defined as "not doin...

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...

"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...

Recent posts reflect my continuing struggle to reconcile the way in which my son died, the means by which I learned what happened, and the conflicting desire to create a Restorative Culture in healthcare. Perhaps this is a function of the holidays. For bereaved parents, each holiday, anniversary, birthday, life milestone is merely a time stamp of how much continues to be lost. At the start of the new year, unexpected conversations and experiences gave me courage to speak of a part of James' loss I rarely discuss. After he suffered severe insult to his brainstem and his cortex, I had to limit my thought processes, expectations, dreams and hopes for James. At this point in his life, I was the parent of a severely disabled child. And I wanted him. I wanted the medical equipment, the doctors, the appointments, the frustration, the years of wondering "would it be better if he had..." I have the advantage of knowing it would not have been better if he had died. It would have b...

This is copywrighted material. No reproduction in whole or in part may be reprinted without express, written permission from the author. Introduction In a response to medical malpractice crisis in 2001, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority was created through legislation as a result of these concerns there is new data to study. There are 300,000 to 400,000 “sentinel event” (an outcome of treatment that is unexpected and has left the patient preventably injured or deceased) reports in the state each year (Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, 2007). It is widely accepted amongst stakeholders there is underreporting and misunderstanding as to what classifies as a reportable “sentinel event”. Hospital acquired infection, wrong site surgery, ventilator-induced pneumothorax are a few examples that have been identified by government agencies (Agency or Healthcare Research and Quality) as preventable and sentinel events. It appears much concern is driven by medical malpract...