News in brief - Feb. 3, 2003

CMA looks at liability concerns - Joint Commission to honor quality care improvements - ACGME names award winners - Former Treasury secretary rejoins patient safety group

CMA looks at liability concerns

In response to calls from physicians experiencing large medical liability insurance rate increases or being dropped by their insurer, the California Medical Assn. is surveying physicians on liability problems.

California passed tort reform in 1975, the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, that included a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages and other reforms that physicians say have helped keep rates low and kept insurance companies writing policies in the state. That legislation has been looked to as a national model.

The CMA plans to gather information about insurance rates and analyze it to see the extent of premium increases by region and specialty.

Joint Commission to honor quality care improvements

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is seeking applications for the 2003 Ernest A. Codman Award, which recognizes excellence in the use of performance measures to achieve health care quality improvement.

Accredited health care organizations can receive national recognition for their performance improvement efforts and share their methods and results with other organizations.

Applicants may submit a performance and improvement initiative that reflects a significant achievement within or across the organization for consideration in the following categories: Ambulatory Care, Assisted Living, Behavioral Health Care, Home Care (includes Home Health, Personal Care and Support Services, Infusion Therapy, Home Medical Equipment and Hospice Care), Hospitals, Laboratory, Long-Term Care and Networks (includes Managed Care Plans, Integrated Delivery Networks, Preferred Provider Organizations and Managed Behavioral Health Care and Other Health Care Networks) and Multiple Organization Team.

The deadline for applications is April 14. The application can be accessed through the Joint Commission Web site (www.jcaho.org).

Award winners will present their initiatives at a national conference in Chicago in December.

ACGME names award winners

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education named two physicians as winners of its 2003 John C. Gienapp award, which honors those who have made a distinguished contribution to graduate medical education and the accreditation process.

The ACGME selected Paul Friedmann, MD, and William T. Williams Jr., MD, for their work regarding resident work hours and resident accreditation standards as well as their work with several ACGME committees.

Dr. Friedmann, a surgeon, is senior vice president for academic affairs for Baystate Health System in Springfield, Mass., and a professor of surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston. Dr. Williams, a retired internist and pediatrician, is a clinical professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Before retirement, he also served as chief medical officer for the Carolinas Health System in Charlotte, N.C.

The Gienapp award, established in 1999, honors John C. Gienapp, PhD, who served as the ACGME's executive director from 1980 to 1998.

Former Treasury secretary rejoins patient safety group

Paul O'Neill, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Alcoa CEO, has rejoined the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative after being forced to resign his post in the Bush administration.

O'Neill helped form the Pittsburgh group in 1997 as part of an effort to reduce hospital-acquired infections and medication errors, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. In October 2001, it received a $4.8 million grant from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to fund its "Systems Approach for Improving Region-Wide Patient Safety" project.

Other PRHI programs include working to improve patient outcomes in cardiac care, hip and knee replacement, repeat cesarean sections, depression, diabetes and radiation oncology; and finding ways to adapt Toyota Production System principles in "problem-solving laboratories" to health care delivery.