Improving Patient Safety: Shift From Shame and Blame to Openness and Communication; Focus of Safe Health Care Conference - May 29, Richmond Marriott.Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers RICHMOND, Va.--(BW HealthWire)--May 29, 2002 "The most important challenge facing the health care industry is patient safety," said keynote keynote /key·note/ (ke´not) in homeopathy, the characteristic property of a drug that indicates its use in treating a similar symptom of disease. speaker Lucian L. Leape, M.D., at the second annual Virginians Improving Patient Care and Safety (VIPC&S) statewide conference held Wednesday, May 29, at the Richmond Marriott. Dr. Leape, adjunct adjunct (aj´ungkt), n a drug or other substance that serves a supplemental purpose in therapy. adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard School of Public Health is (colloquially, HSPH) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, next to Harvard Medical School and Cambridge, Massachusetts, , added, "It is important that we focus on the systems that are in place and not the individuals. Human errors are caused by the flaws in the systems. Doctors are not mechanics of the body, but sultans of the soul." More than 450 of Virginia's health care leaders and professionals attended the sold-out event that focused on patient safety initiatives and explored the role of leadership in safety improvement and accountability. Dr. Leape cited doctor shame and fear as another area that needs to be addressed before the number of medical errors can be reduced. "Due to the increased number of malpractice malpractice, failure to provide professional services with the skill usually exhibited by responsible and careful members of the profession, resulting in injury, loss, or damage to the party contracting those services. suits, doctors have trouble talking about mistakes, making it impossible for them to be honest with patients," explained Dr. Leape. "We need to look at things as system flaws, then work to change people's behavior, and their hearts and minds will follow." Emphasizing the need to recognize "preventable medical mistakes," Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of The Leapfrog Group, urged businesses big and small to join together and support system changes that help eliminate medical errors. "All of us are users of health care, and we need to make responsible decisions on where and how that care is delivered," she said. The Leapfrog Group is a collection of some of the country's biggest Fortune 500 corporations that formed in response to the Institute of Medicine's report that stated that up to 98,000 Americans die each year from medical mistakes. Recognizing that human error can never be completely eliminated, health professionals are focusing on the need to find better ways to catch errors in the system. Nurse shortages, beleaguered be·lea·guer tr.v. be·lea·guered, be·lea·guer·ing, be·lea·guers 1. To harass; beset: We are beleaguered by problems. 2. To surround with troops; besiege. doctors, cost pressures and complexity of communication were highlighted as contributing factors that need to be addressed. VIPC&S is Virginia's premiere organization for patient safety initiatives. Founded by the Medical Society of Virginia Virginia, state, United States Virginia, state of the south-central United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), North Carolina and Tennessee (S), Kentucky and West Virginia (W), and Maryland and the District of Columbia (N and NE). , Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Shield A US not-for-profit health care insurer that is a reimbursement intermediary for physicians. Cf Blue Cross. , the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, the Virginia Association of Health Plans, the Virginia Pharmacists This is a list of notable pharmacists.
For more information about the VIPC&S conference, sponsored by Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield and Bon Secours Richmond Health System, please visit www.vipcs.org. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion