HealthCommentary

Exploring Human Potential

Could Don Berwick Use Medicare To Test Linking Medical Liability Reform To The Patient Safety Movement?

Posted on | September 9, 2010 | Comments Off on Could Don Berwick Use Medicare To Test Linking Medical Liability Reform To The Patient Safety Movement?

Mike Magee

Despite all the progress in scientific research and technological advancements, at its core, health care remains a huge and complex human endeavor struggling for perfection. How huge? 900 million office visits and 35 million hospital discharges per year.(1)  How complex? Complex enough to have spurned a massive defensive and litigious malpractice system whose annual cost this year has been pegged at 55 billion.(2) The goal? A culture of safety and reliability. The problem? Our medical malpractice system in this country suffers from a fundamental disconnect to our safety movement.

Don Berwick MD, arguably the father of Deming style process re-engineering and continuous improvement methods in health care, has just assumed the lead role in Medicare. Deming and Berwick both argued that continuous improvement can only thrive in a culture of openness and transparency. But medical liability promotes secrecy and retrenchment. Might it be possible for Dr. Berwick to design within the Medicare program test sites that experimentally link liability reform to patient safety improvements? (CONTINUE….)

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