This week’s photograph is of the storefront of Go Mama Go!, a local and vital landmark, opened by Noi Chudnoff in 1999. I have never met Ms. Chudnoff, but I learned about her shortly after moving to Washington, when she died after a fall at a local hospital while awaiting surgery. She was weeks away from her 60th birthday. Ribbons tied by grieving members of the community in November, 2007 are still attached to the gate.

Members of the community marched in this year’s Capital Pride Parade (photograph here) to remember Noi, and it was a reminder of the impact a person can make in their community when they are present, and the greater impact that occurs when they are suddenly taken away.

What are the parades your patients will be a part of during their lives, and how can you make sure they are able participate in every one, in good health, with their family and community?

• Facts about the 2008 National Patient Safety Goals | Joint Commission - Goal 13A - Involve patients and families in their care as a patient safety strategy

• Questions Are the Answer - AHRQ - Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - supporting reduction of medical errors and accuracy - through patient involvement. Now the health system can meet patients half way by providing this information as part of every encounter.

May 10th through May 13th:

• Be Well Mobile, Patient Engagement Software that works - cell phone platform for disease management
• Medical Advances—Through Your iPhone? - Portable applications in health care that the iPhone could enable.
• Scientific Misconduct Blog: LSD and the corruption of medicine (Part III): Naming names - A chilling account of experimentation on US citizens without consent
• Texting may help teens remember meds - CNN.com - Cell phones as a tool in medication adherence.
• The Open Secret of Success: Financial Page: The New Yorker - One of the best summaries of what Toyota does well that I've seen.
• ITIF: Explaining International Broadband Leadership - Summary of broadband access in the US and other countries
• Ruthsarian Layouts - Some helpful CSS layouts for blog design

Let me know what you think!

Ending Secrecy: Physician Makes Case for Full Disclosure of Health Records - iHealthBeat

Patient Safety and the “Just Culture”:
A Primer for Health Care Executives, Prepared by David Marx, JD, for Columbia University under a grant provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

A lot.

There’s an interesting discussion underway at e-paients.net, about a recent case in Minnesota, which I was asked to (and did) comment on.

(e-patient) Dave brought up an important point, which concerns holding people accountable. Is it for the error, or knowing that the potential for error exists, or both?

I remembered this excellent paper from my files about this, and fortunately it is public domain, since it has been funded by our tax dollars. It’s useful to review the principles contained in it, which include supporting accountability and learning at the same time. Interesting that a lot of smart people have already done the thinking. Now we need to operationalize it.

With regard to the discussion on e-patients, I also remembered something about me. Whenever I walk into one of my organization’s medical centers, I assume that I am 100 % accountable for everything that is happening there. As I walk by the pharmacy, the lab, and head up to primary care, I imagine that my role is to protect every patient receiving care in all of those areas, whether or not I am directly involved in providing that care.

Now, imagine that every physician, staff member, patient, patient’s family, community member, carried themselves that way in every hospital and medical center. What would health care be like?

This cannot happen unless we support the idea that everyone on the care team, patient included, deserves access to all of the information about their care.

• Center for Health System Change - Physicians Moving to larger practices - Important to know about shifts in physician practice makeup in terms of targeting patient access.
• Whose Data Is It Anyway? Expanding Consumer Control over Personal Health Information - CHCF.org -
• L.I. Hospital Scrutinized After Deaths of Patients - New York Times - This very sad story brings up the issue of patient safety as a function of providing patient access. Is it possible that a patient might identify correctly that the specimen tested was in error if they looked at the report also?

February 4th through February 6th:

• DC Moves for Safer Sidewalks - Get There - Washington government takes a step toward promoting walkability. Sidewalks stay open for business.Walkers rejoice!
• Apple //c - a photoset on Flickr - The OOB experience of an unopened AppleIIc computer. Remember when technology was fun? It still is. And I never even learned to program in Pascal.
• Ryanair’s Changing Altitude - Efficient cost management and charging for everything keeps margins high at RyanAir - a great example of “copy how we think” in terms of being like Southwest
• Running a hospital: More on fetching and work-arounds - BIDMC launches an improvement methodology called SPIRIT. Looks like it’s at least partially based on LEAN?
• The Health Care Blog: Bad Medicine: How The AMA Undermined Primary Care in America - Brian Klepper - Analysis of RBRVS and impact on primary care.
• The ethics of CEO blogging - Nice discussion from Paul Levy about the approach that a CEO takes to blogging. I’m in support!
• Insurers Begin To Reimburse for Online Visits, Concerns Remain - Nice profile of Kaiser Permanente’s program.
• Marriot Rolls Out Web-Based PHR System to Employees Nationwide - iHealthBeat - An employer-sponsored PHR. Will the lack of connection to the health care team be an issue?
• KUOW: Program Archive: Patient Safety, January, 2008 - Dr. Matt Handley, from Group Health Cooperative, is featured
• Best Companies 2008 - FORTUNE Magazine’s Top 100 Employers to Work For - The 2008 list is out. From an HR/Leadership perspective, it is interesting to look at some of the most important qualifications for being on the list, such as support for diversity.

• IHE.net IHE North America Connectathon 2008 Conference - Happening today - vendors getting together to demonstrate connectivity - ahead of standards
• Report: One in Five D.C. Residents Is Without Regular Health Care - washingtonpost.com - Sobering data about the health of DC residents
• Details Sparse, But Federal EHR Program Draws Praise, Optimism - iHealthBeat - Information about Blue Cross of Hawaii’s efforts to spur EHR adoption, with $20,000 per physician.
• Local News | Hospitals to tear up bills for medical mistakes | Seattle Times Newspaper - Washington State Health Care Organizations agree not to bill for “never” events
• Achieving a High-Performance Health Care System with Universal Access: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries — American College of Physicians 148 (1): 55 — Annals of Internal Medicine -