A recent article on medical errors on the front page of the Boston Globe underscores once again the importance of patient safety issues. According to the Globe, there has been an increase in the number of incidents reported to the Department of Public Health. This past year an estimated 590 cases will be brought forward, up from 415 in 1996.
This increase is due in large measure to the efforts of hospitals to report incidents as a learning opportunity. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we have a well-deserved reputation for providing innovative approaches to stemming problem areas, such as medication mistakes. Our computer order entry system was recently featured in a Business Week article entitled How E-hospitals Can Save Your Life. Yet, even the best systems cannot fully eliminate the prospect of errors.
We have recently launched a new infrastructure to support our patient safety initiatives at BWH. We have brought together the areas of quality assurance/quality improvement with compliance and care improvement. This patient safety initiative will be all encompassing. Our patient safety officer, Tejal Gandhi, MD, will work with a new administrator in the CMO’s office, along with representatives from nursing and pharmacy to make BWH an even safer place to receive care.
In the wake of recent reports from the Institute of Medicine, it is important that we dedicate ourselves to the elimination of silos of reporting responsibility. I firmly believe that this new initiative will provide us with a more responsive and coordinated approach to patient safety. It will streamline our reporting system, be more nimble in its response to reports of adverse events and diminish the emphasis of blame.
If we can succeed in this effort, we will build upon this hospital’s remarkable reputation for stellar patient care.
Sincerely,
Andy Whittemore
Chief Medical Officer