'Let's Get On With It!'; Patient Safety Leaders to Meet in Boston -- Discuss Improving the Safety of Patients.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

NPSF Patient Safety Congress 2004

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 2004

On May 3-7, patient safety leaders from across the country will join together in Boston to declare, "Let's Get On With It!" The 6th Annual National Patient Safety Foundation Congress's theme reflects the urgency to create a safe and supportive organizational culture for patients and healthcare professionals.

"Let's Get On With It!" emphasizes NPSF's commitment to move patient safety research into practice. Leaders in the patient safety movement--patients, family members, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, risk managers, educators, researchers, legislators, manufacturers, and administrators--will spend five days participating in more than 80 sessions along ten tracks. The plenary sessions and workshops will highlight effective implementations of policies and programs that result in cultural change and sustained improvement in clinician behavioral patterns.

"The educational tracks have been carefully designed to provide Congress participants with the best current thinking on strategies and solutions for improving patient safety," said Susan Edgman-Levitan, Executive Director, John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital and NPSF Congress Co-Chair. "NPSF recognizes that healthcare organizations and professions must transform their existing clinical and organizational cultures to have a lasting impact on safety."

NPSF attendees will learn the importance of incorporating research findings into their improvement work and will be helped to identify existing tools, best practices and resources needed by individuals and institutions engaged in cultural change.

The popular Breakfast Roundtable discussions will occur the second morning of the Congress. These discussions will be led by experts in the patient safety movement and focus on topics that will improve patient safety. They give participants an opportunity to talk with experts and network with peers who are working on the same issues. The expert discussion leaders and topics are as follows:

-- John Kenagy, M.D., Harvard Business School, will facilitate a

discussion on adaptive design;

-- Chuck Denham, M.D., Texas Medical Institute of Technology,

will discuss system technology and automation;

-- Allan Frankel, M.D., Partners Healthcare System, will discuss

leadership techniques;

-- Ilene Corina, PULSE, NY and NPSF Board member, and Beverly

Johnson, Institute for Family-Centered Care will discuss

patient and family councils;

-- Paula Griswold, Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of

Medical Errors, will discuss prospective and retrospective

accountability;

-- Gina Pugliese, RN, Premier Safety Institute, will discuss

disclosure and non-punitive reporting;

-- Leilani Kicklighter, RN, Miami Jewish Home & Hospital for the

Aged, will discuss safety in long-term care;

-- Joanne Turnbull, Independent Consultant, will discuss safe

spaces;

-- Michael Leonard, M.D., Colorado Permanente Medical Group,

Kaiser Permanente, will discuss crew resource management;

-- and many more topics.

Another highlight at the Congress is the NPSF Distinguished Advisors Town Hall Meeting on the morning of May 6 featuring NPSF Distinguished Advisors, David Lawrence, M.D., Retired Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, and the NPSF Congress Co-Chair; Carolyn Clancy, Director, Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ); Lucian Leape, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health; and Jim Conway, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Other Congress events include Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET)/Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP)/American Hospital Association Train-the-Trainer Workshops, Institute of Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) Patient Safety Minicourses, and American Society for Healthcare Risk Management's (ASHRM) post conference program.

For up-to-date information on the Congress, visit www.npsf.org/congress. Media interested in covering the Congress, please contact Shawn Taylor Zelman at [phone], [e-mail] for registration information.

The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving patient safety and reducing medical errors by funding research and raising awareness with hospitals, healthcare systems, doctors, and nurses and the patients and families they serve. Having worked for seven years to make patient safety a national priority, the NPSF is working with the healthcare industry to find affordable ways through research and education to reduce medical errors and to improve the quality of the nation's healthcare. The NPSF was founded in 1996 and incorporated in 1997 by the American Medical Association, CNA HeatlhPro, and 3M, with significant support from the Schering-Plough Corporation. For more information, visit www.npsf.org.