Get tough on medical errors, conference told

Economist Uwe Reinhardt, PhD, calls on health care safety and quality activists to stop being so polite.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Dec. 22/29, 2003.

Public pressure and government action are needed to make the health care industry more serious about improving quality and patient safety, and a better job of reporting health care issues by the media could ratchet up the pressure.

That was the message delivered by speakers at the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' recent "Decisions That Count" three-day conference on health care quality and patient safety in Chicago attended by physicians, nurses, attorneys and health care managers.

"The American media is failing us with health care," said Princeton University Professor of Political Economy Uwe E. Reinhardt, PhD.

Dr. Reinhardt wondered what the public would do if news anchors mentioned in every broadcast that "another 120 people died needlessly" that day because of medical errors or some other quality failure.

He also declared that "the politeness has to leave the debate" and told the audience that they must get tough and not worry about being liked.

But all people can expect the private sector to do is talk and "nibble at the edges," Dr. Reinhardt said, so it will be up to the government to make changes that will improve quality.

National Quality Forum CEO Ken Kizer, MD, said it's time to recognize that "health care is a team sport" and noted that 80% of hands-on patient care in hospitals is delivered by someone other than a physician. He said simple things can be done to improve quality such as serving more nourishing food, requiring caregivers to get flu vaccinations and making sure hospital staff wash their hands between patients. George J. Annis, who chairs Boston University's Dept. of Health Law, cited efforts to get doctors to wash their hands as an example of how low the quality bar has been set.