Young Physicians Patient Safety Award Winners Announced

The Doctors Company Foundation, in partnership with the Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), has announced this year’s winners of The Doctors Company Foundation Young Physicians Patient Safety Awards, which recognize young physicians for their deep personal insight into the significance of patient safety work.

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Collaboration Designed to Improve Care Transitions, Reduce Readmission in Rural Areas

Frontier Medicine Better Health Partnership (FMBHP) and Vree Health – a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. focused on technology-enabled services designed to improve the reach, cost-efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare – has announced a collaboration designed to improve care transitions and reduce hospital readmission rates for patients in rural areas.

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Diagnostic Errors More Common, Costly, and Harmful Than Treatment Mistakes

In reviewing 25 years of U.S. malpractice claim payouts, Johns Hopkins researchers found that diagnostic errors — not surgical mistakes or medication overdoses — accounted for the largest fraction of claims, the most severe patient harm, and the highest total of penalty payouts. Diagnosis-related payments amounted to $38.8 billion between 1986 and 2010, they found.

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Bright Spots in a Dark Week

Normally, it doesn’t matter much where I’m from. But, last week, being a long-time resident of the Boston area suddenly came to the forefront. Though I was not ordered to “stay safe at home,” I did and found it hard to concentrate on anything other than news of the Boston Marathon bombings and related manhunt. In the outpouring of information, Boston’s medical community and related media outlets provided some of the best reporting, with news and reflection of lasting value.

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KBCore “Purple Button” Evaluation System Helps Meet ACA Reporting Requirements

As states continue to build health insurance exchanges (HIXs) for use by the Jan. 1, 2014, deadline set forth in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is another aspect of the ACA that has received little attention – the requirement that by Jan. 1, 2015, HIXs cannot contract with a hospital of 50 beds or more unless that hospital has a patient safety evaluation system and reports data to a patient safety organization (PSO).

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