I borrowed this from another blog. It is a powerful statement about the state of safety in health care. Any physician who says that the systems in which they practice should be held equally accountable for these medical errors is right! It is not just the physician but the complexity of the systems we have set up which fail. BUT, physicians must stand up as the leaders of the health care team and demand that these preventable errors stop. They must take the time to participate in the system solutions, regardless of the reimbursement they may or may not receive to be a part of the team. The physicians must be the leaders, the rest of us will follow.
From: Robert Sinsheimer
Subject: Medical Safety V. Gun Safety: An email now in circulation
================
Doctors
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths (medical error) caused by physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Deaths due to medical error per physician is 0.171
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
================
Now think about this:
Guns
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. (Yes, that’s 80 million)
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.
Statistics courtesy of FBI
================
So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
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Remember, ‘Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.’
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FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Physician Performance
Measuring physician performance is not an easy task. There are guidelines, systems, processes to measure but none of it is cut and dry or easy to get and assimilate. There is dissension in the ranks... Most physicians don't want to be measured, or they think they are fine with it until one day, something scary pops up on their "Report Card". Then they believe the data is flawed, risk adjustment is inadequate, blah, blah... The truth is that it not a true or false quiz. We look at trends to identify opportunities. There is no perfect reporting system and no-one likes their information out there for the world to see. But it is reality, so we'll continue to do the best that we can.
The key, I believe, is to align physician and hospital performance measures so that goals are aligned. Hospitals work on system processes to support physician practice. It is the key to success for both hospitals and physician survival in this age of quality. Keep measurement as simple as possible and make sure adequate information exists. In this symbiotic relationship of physician and hospital, it is in all of our best interests to perform well, beyond expectations, strive for perfection.
The key, I believe, is to align physician and hospital performance measures so that goals are aligned. Hospitals work on system processes to support physician practice. It is the key to success for both hospitals and physician survival in this age of quality. Keep measurement as simple as possible and make sure adequate information exists. In this symbiotic relationship of physician and hospital, it is in all of our best interests to perform well, beyond expectations, strive for perfection.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
What exactly do you do?
I get this question all the time. The conversation goes something like this:
What do you do?
I'm a nurse.
So you take care of patients?
No, not really I am a Quality Improvement Specialist
Well what do you do if you don't take care of patients???
I know it's a non-conventional thing for a nurse to do, but it is important and we need someone to do it. Someone out there looking for opportunities to provide better care to our patients. Not to get doctors, nurses and other medical care workers in trouble, just someone making sure that patients who go into the hospital come out better than when they got there and not worse. And, yes, I realize that sometimes that even means not coming out alive.
See it's personal for me. My brother was always sick. He had chronic renal failure requiring dialysis. He started dialysis and then miraculously got a kidney transplant a few months later. But, he was allergic to the anti-rejection medications so the new kidney took a hit right off the bat. Then it was back on dialysis. People live on dialysis for years. And they get tons of infections, have cardiac arrests and die suddenly because of erratic blood chemistry levels, blood clots, etc. It's a hard life, but people do live.
My brother was not the usual patient, he hadn't done anything wrong to "kill" his kidneys, he was just born that way. He didn't take the best care of himself and as a nurse I know he was probably one of the "difficult patients" we all encounter. We were scared and we wanted the best care that could be had. We watched the nurses like a hawk and questioned the doctors endlessly. We all had high expectations. I was in nursing school while my brother battled the brunt of his disease. I knew what kind of nurses patients needed and I was determined to be one of those nurses. I am one of those nurses. But I realized that not everyone is.
It was 2 days after Christmas, it was shift change and not "visiting hours" in the ICU. We asked to see my brother before his surgery, to say a prayer, to sit with him. He wasn't the usual comatose 80 year old patient in the unit. We were told no, we would have to wait, but they would get us before he went to surgery. My sisters and my dad waited in the hall as they wheeled my brother down the hall. My mom didn't have time to make it from the waiting room before they wisked him into the OR for this "minor pricedure".
My brother died alone in an operating room after a rushed decision to do a tracheotomy following a heart valve replacement because of MRSA growths on his mitral valve. My brother did not have heart disease, he had kidney disease... He was 28 years old. He died alone 2 days after Christmas and 2 days before his birthday, from complications of a health care acquired infection. My brother is in a better place, he suffered while he was sick. I am grateful for the nurses and doctors who did have patience with my family and I am angry that someone, somewhere along the lines made him sicker than he was by passing on that infection.
I have a passion for what I do, I don't want to tell doctors how to treat their patients. I want doctors to follow guidelines and develop protocols so that some of the individual accountability to remember every single mundane aspect of care is eliminated and doctors and nurses actually have time to take care of their patients.
Rest in peace Robbie ~
What do you do?
I'm a nurse.
So you take care of patients?
No, not really I am a Quality Improvement Specialist
Well what do you do if you don't take care of patients???
I know it's a non-conventional thing for a nurse to do, but it is important and we need someone to do it. Someone out there looking for opportunities to provide better care to our patients. Not to get doctors, nurses and other medical care workers in trouble, just someone making sure that patients who go into the hospital come out better than when they got there and not worse. And, yes, I realize that sometimes that even means not coming out alive.
See it's personal for me. My brother was always sick. He had chronic renal failure requiring dialysis. He started dialysis and then miraculously got a kidney transplant a few months later. But, he was allergic to the anti-rejection medications so the new kidney took a hit right off the bat. Then it was back on dialysis. People live on dialysis for years. And they get tons of infections, have cardiac arrests and die suddenly because of erratic blood chemistry levels, blood clots, etc. It's a hard life, but people do live.
My brother was not the usual patient, he hadn't done anything wrong to "kill" his kidneys, he was just born that way. He didn't take the best care of himself and as a nurse I know he was probably one of the "difficult patients" we all encounter. We were scared and we wanted the best care that could be had. We watched the nurses like a hawk and questioned the doctors endlessly. We all had high expectations. I was in nursing school while my brother battled the brunt of his disease. I knew what kind of nurses patients needed and I was determined to be one of those nurses. I am one of those nurses. But I realized that not everyone is.
It was 2 days after Christmas, it was shift change and not "visiting hours" in the ICU. We asked to see my brother before his surgery, to say a prayer, to sit with him. He wasn't the usual comatose 80 year old patient in the unit. We were told no, we would have to wait, but they would get us before he went to surgery. My sisters and my dad waited in the hall as they wheeled my brother down the hall. My mom didn't have time to make it from the waiting room before they wisked him into the OR for this "minor pricedure".
My brother died alone in an operating room after a rushed decision to do a tracheotomy following a heart valve replacement because of MRSA growths on his mitral valve. My brother did not have heart disease, he had kidney disease... He was 28 years old. He died alone 2 days after Christmas and 2 days before his birthday, from complications of a health care acquired infection. My brother is in a better place, he suffered while he was sick. I am grateful for the nurses and doctors who did have patience with my family and I am angry that someone, somewhere along the lines made him sicker than he was by passing on that infection.
I have a passion for what I do, I don't want to tell doctors how to treat their patients. I want doctors to follow guidelines and develop protocols so that some of the individual accountability to remember every single mundane aspect of care is eliminated and doctors and nurses actually have time to take care of their patients.
Rest in peace Robbie ~
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