Recently in Patient Safety Category

When I first read the October 15 New York Times article "Suit Accuses S.E.C. of Failing to Detect Madoff Scheme" I noticed a welling up of "justice deserved" sentiment coupled with admiration for the victims who had found a novel way to circumvent apparent obstacles to suing regulators for compensation as they attempted to recover losses that may, in part, have been enabled by regulatory incompetence. And then came the pause and unease. Diana Henruiqes' discussion of the SEC's immunity - and its potential limitations as claimed by the plaintiffs - made me think of the protection afforded hospital QI and peer review processes. And its potential vulnerability under similar circumstances.

Nobody likes bad reviews. Especially health care delivery or service organizations. Because bad press means customers (patients, referring physicians, etc.) will think we are unsafe or unfriendly. And it will surely lead to lawsuits, regulatory intervention, loss of competitive positioning, etc. Especially if it's online. Well maybe there's another side to this story - at least if you believe the lessons of The Upside Of Bad Online Customer Reviews which appeared on Forbes.com August 4, 2009. This short piece by Mirela Iverac, a frequent Forbes contributor, is a provocative read for those health care leaders who might be willing to consider the other side of conventional wisdom on this point...

The May 13 May 14 issues of The Wall Street Journal ran multiple stories about the current NTSB investigations into the tragic February 2009 Colgan Air crash in Buffalo. While the agency has not yet ruled on the cause of the accident, there's been a lot of testimony and documentation focusing on the role of pilot training, pilot error, and the interactions between crew members that prevented correction of what a senior test pilot for the airplane manufacturer termed a "recoverable stall." In medical safety terms, "a near miss." So it should be no surprise that I found these articles both riveting and highly connected to the dilemma of health care leaders charged with safeguarding patient safety. Since airline safety practices, especially crew resource management (CRM), are seen as models for medical error reduction, the failure of airline safety practices should teach us something important. These articles are rich and provocative so I'll hit on just a few points and leave it to you to read them and more fully relate them to health care...