February 2008 - Posts

• The Checklist Saga: Victory!

  I must admit, I didn’t hold out high hopes that a ragtag band of committed clinicians and other quality improvers could change federal policy. But we’ve done just that. If the Feds are capable of rectifying this mistake, who knows what might be next! Read More... Posted Sat, Feb 16 2008 7:24 PM by Bob Wachter | 5 Comments Filed under: Quality Improvement, Hospital Care, Quality Measurement, Medical Education/Academia, Patient Safety/Medical Errors, Health Policy

• Time to Write Congress re: The Checklist Debacle

  Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to write, blog, and rant about the OHRP's horrific decision to shut down the Hopkins-Michigan ICU checklist study, a decision that threatens the future of quality improvement and safety efforts in American Read More... Posted Fri, Feb 15 2008 5:52 AM by Bob Wachter | 1 Comments Filed under: Quality Improvement, Hospital Care, Quality Measurement, Medical Education/Academia, Patient Safety/Medical Errors, Health Policy

• Is Medicare’s “No Pay for Errors” Plan a Good Idea?

  In this month’s issue of the Joint Commission Journal of Quality and Patient Safety, I (with UCSF’s Adams Dudley and the American Hospital Association's Nancy Foster) tackle this provocative question. The answer may surprise you: yes (probably). The devil Read More... Posted Mon, Feb 11 2008 7:34 AM by Bob Wachter | 2 Comments Filed under: Quality Improvement, Hospital Care, Pay-for-performance, Quality Measurement, Medical Education/Academia, Hospitalists/Hospital Medicine, Patient Safety/Medical Errors, Nurses/Nursing, Media/Press Coverage

• Can Medical Errors Be Funny? You Betcha.

  All medical mistakes are problematic. A few are truly tragic. But every now and then, a medical error comes along that is downright hilarious. From AHRQ WebM&M, the case-based Web journal I edit for the federal government, here are two of the latter Read More... Posted Sun, Feb 03 2008 7:31 AM by Bob Wachter | 5 Comments Filed under: Hospital Care, Ambulatory/Primary Care, Patient Safety/Medical Errors