restorARTively

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...

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 ...

Anger moves things. T his Opinion Editorial from today's Wall Street Journal really ticked me off. Taking advantage of his advanced education and the weight the general public will give it, this author is putting forth decades old myths about medical malpractice. I have spent the past seven years digging against the strength of a huge institution to find out what happened to my son and then gathering the personal strength to share what I have learned so others (including the providers) do not suffer needlessly. In Pennsylvania alone, which put in place its own tort reform in March 2002, there were approximately 350,000 reported sentinel events to the state's Patient Safety Authority for 2007. For the same time period there were only about 1300-1400 medical malpractice cases on the judicial dockets. That is one-half of one-percent. And, of those few cases that will go to jury trial , the vast majority will be found for the defense. I am proud to be an American. There are multitu...

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...

A down's syndrome man went into the Pennsylvania-based hospital as he had many times before over his sixty years for surgery to drain his shunt . Only this time, he was released with an untreated hospital acquired infection the day after his surgery. He has been refused further care from the providers that were a part of the stay that led to the HAI . He hasn't been able to work since. A 92 yo woman on Medicare was made to pay upfront the costs for cataract surgery. She didn't have the money to pay but she fortunately had family in the area whom helped put up the cash. A pediatric cardiac patient visits a hospital several times for care. This time she received the wrong dose of morphine for pain. She comes home with a strong heart but a damaged brain. Its been a long month. These are just a couple examples of what patients and family in Pennsylvania have been facing. While the month has been escaping me, each day I consider posting on the blog. However, the calls and ema...

At the outset of my Fall Research and Statistics in Retsortaive Practices coursework, the intelligence of my trust in the physician-defendant in my son’s case (with whom I began a unique post-verdict dialogue) came into doubt by national leaders in patient safety, as well as by a couple trusted peers and confidants. It was the first time I had ever thought to question the doctor’s “story” and his explanations of his actions and decisions that fateful October evening. Just weeks previous I shared a piece of our post-verdict reconciliation to an international audience of healthcare leaders at Harvard University (Krukenkamp & Mannix, 2008). Afterwards, a few questioned the validity of my words, my story as well as who the mysterious doc must be since I did not reveal his name. I have never revealed the name since the doctor expressed an interest in remaining a quiet supporter of my attempts to reconcile the patient – physician relationship post-adverse event. However, for those tru...

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...

"So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young " ~John Lennon, Happy Christmas The second Sunday of December has been tagged by grieving parents as the one to remember our lost children. We light a candle at 7 PM. I am not certain how long this has been an event; but this is my eighth year performing the ritual. I am not sure who decided to make it December; but I haven't been able to sing Silent Night without crying for eight Christmases. I don't think many others remember my son throughout the year; but this day gives me permission to remind them its a gift when they say his name, "James". I don't know exactly how many children have died from preventable medical errors; but there are as many as 277 patients a day that die from preventable medical error. I can't imagine how Pennsylvania physicians manage to pay their ...