Tuesday, July 8, 2008
WALKING THE WALK
There are a lot of people around the country "talking the talk" about disclosure and apology when bad things happen in health care. You may have read in the Globe last week about a wrong site surgery at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Check out CEO Paul Levy's blog for a great example of an organization that is "Walking the Walk" and trying to do the right thing.
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What a terrible thing to happen, especially in light of so much recent increased awareness in the media of and efforts made by hospitals to prevent wrong site surgery.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am tempted to find cynical reasons for why a hospital would choose to go public after such a drastic error, I'll refrain and simply note that yes, the BI is taking an unprecedented approach towards transparency and disclosure after medical error. And only time will tell whether or not this action will aid in the recovery of the patient, patient's family, and medical staff involved and also whether or not it will help reduce similar medical errors in the future at this and other medical institutions.
I also hope that Dr. Levy and the BI will be as forthcoming and supportive of the patient and clinicians involved in this incident 6 weeks, 6 months, maybe even 6 years from now as he is today.