Skolnik Medical Transparency Expansion Bill Expands Information Available To Patients
On June 10th of this year, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 124, better known as the Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Expansion Bill, enlarging the circle of healthcare professionals in the state of Colorado that must make available all information related to their training, qualifications, criminal, disciplinary and malpractice history to healthcare consumers.
In 2007, Senator Morgan Carroll of Colorado, along with Patty and David Skolnik, championed the original Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act (HB 07-1331). This bill requires physicians in Colorado to report education, certain business relationships, malpractice involvement, and any disciplinary action or crimes. The bill is named after Patty and David’s son Michael, whose needless death at twenty-five years-old was the result of a surgery where related information was not disclosed to the family. Since Michael’s death in 2004, his mother, Patty Skolnik, has fought for greater transparency in healthcare. The expansion bill, passed earlier this… Continue reading
Visitors and Guests
In May, our newly appointed leader of CMS, Dr. Don Berwick, gave the graduation address at Yale University Medical School where his daughter was entering the ranks of newly anointed physicians. The graduation address has all but gone viral, making its way to those of us in Chicago so interested to hear the heart-felt health care experiences Dr. Berwick shares whenever he speaks. While the entire address was quite moving, what struck me most was the humility with which he views his profession, and his place within the circle of doctor-patient involvement. Here is an excerpt that I found particularly moving and speaks to the importance of delivering health care in a way that puts the patient first:
…What is at stake here may seem a small thing in the face of the enormous health care world you have joined. It is as a nickel to the $2.6 trillion industry.… Continue reading
Future Caregivers, Law Students and Patient Advocates Join Forces to Create Curricular Models For Open Honest Communication in Healthcare
The final day of our Marseille Roundtable on “Open and Honest Communication Skills in Healthcare” focused on reflection of the past weeks work and next steps in how best to disseminate the outcomes and products created from our work. One of the special highlights of the Roundtable was the interactions, conversations, sharing and bonding that occurred between our students and our patient advocates during the week. Students told us how they were so positively impacted by the advocate’s willingness to share their stories related to medical error, their passion to help educate, and their continued commitment to making care safer for all of us. Working with, and getting to know, patient safety advocate leaders Helen Haskell, Patty Skolnik, Dan Ford, Carole Hemmelgarn and Rosemary Gibson over the course of the week left lasting impressions on all the students. Both students and advocates identified a number of projects they will collaboratively… Continue reading
Mindfulness As A Foundation For Principled, Compassionate Actions
Marseille Patient Safety Roundtable Class of 2010
Topics tackled by the group on the fourth day of our Marseille Roundtable on “Open and Honest Communication Skills in Healthcare” included mindfulness and culture. The morning’s session on mindfulness, led by Bob Galbraith and Anne Gunderson, generated considerable discussion on the impact mindfulness plays in both open and honest communication skills and in high-reliability organizations (HRO’s). HRO’s are not satisfied with their successes. They have a preoccupation with failure and their culture is one where people feel safe to report incidents.
Mindfulness, as defined by Weick and Sutcliffe, is to become more aware of one’s own mental processes, listen more attentively, become flexible, and recognize bias and judgments, and thereby act with principles and compassion; it is one’s ability to uncover our own blind spots. Discussion also focused on the characteristics of curiosity, self-awareness and situational awareness in open and honest conversations.… Continue reading