Tuesday, July 20, 2010

National Patient Safety Day -- July 25th, 2010

MITSS would like to join with the organizers, the World Patient Safety Day Committee, and the thousands of organizations and individuals worldwide in commemorating National, World, and Global Patient Safety Day which will be observed on July 25th. Please take a moment this Sunday to reflect and join in a shared vision of safer healthcare and a shared moment to honor the lives of all patients and family members affected by medical errors and harm.

We would also like to congratulate the Veterans Affairs' (VA) National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (NSQIP) team and PULSEAmerica as they have been chosen the recipients of this year's Florence Nightingale and Dr. E. Codman Patient Safety Day Awards.

For more information, go to www.patientsafetyday.com.

Friday, July 16, 2010

"E-Patient Dave" Joins Speaker Lineup for MITSS 9th Annual Dinner

MITSS is pleased to announce that Dave deBronkart, best known as "e-Patient Dave," will be providing the Opening Remarks for our 9th Annual Dinner to be held on Thursday evening, November 4th, at the Westin Copley Place in Boston, MA.

E-Patient Dave is a cancer patient and blogger who, in 2009, became a noted activist for healthcare transformation through participatory medicine and personal health data rights. The Boston Globe has called him "a recognized online champion of 'participatory medicine'." He is the author of "Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig: How an Empowered Patient Beat Stage IV Cancer (And What Healthcare Can Learn From It)," just released and available on Amazon.com. The unusual title comes from the positive approach he chose to confronting his disease.

Dave joins a wonderful lineup of speakers for the evening which will feature a Keynote by Dr. Anthony Whittemore, Chief Medical Officer and SVP of Clinical Affairs for the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. And, the Third Annual MITSS HOPE Award will be presented at the event, so save the date -- November 4th, 2010 -- and please join us!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Best Hospitals 2010-11: the Honor Roll

How does your organization rate? How do you feel about these Honor Rolls for Heatlhcare Systems? Are they accurate or flawed? We'd love to hear from you. Click the link below to read the article and see the top 20 Hospitals across the country.

Best Hospitals 2010-11: the Honor Roll

Monday, June 21, 2010

"Humanity" in the Court System

Check out this interesting article about a judge in New York - a recipient of one of the Obama administration's healthcare reform grants - looking to inject a bit of humanity into the malpractice system.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

What We've Been Up To...

Yikes, it has been some time since our last blog post! We have committed one of the cardinal sins of social media -- we have allowed our blog to become stale!

In a sincere effort to rectify this unfortunate situation, and in an attempt to "freshen" our blog, we offer the following. Here are highlights of just some of the things MITSS has been working on of late. (With all of these exciting things going on, it's no wonder we've neglected our blog -- if only for a short time.)

-- MITSS has assembled a "blue ribbon" panel of experts from around the country to develop a tool kit for clinician support. We will be working feverishly over the summer and into the fall, and we expect to have something ready for release by the end of the year.

-- MITSS is bringing together nurse leaders from some of the minority communities and will be hosting an educational workshop slated for late August. Our goal is to find new and better ways to reach underserved populations with the MITSS message and our services. Stay tuned for details as they unfold.

-- We are now accepting nominations for our Third Annual HOPE Award. Go to www.mitsshopeaward.org for a description of the award, eligibility criteria, and a nomination form. Help us to recognize someone who is doing great work aligned with the MITSS mission (including yourself)!

-- Of course, we continue to provide educational support groups for patients and their families. We have one group just about wrapping up at the North Shore Hospital in Salem.

You can do your part, too. Let us know what you'd like to see discussed in this space and how we can better serve you. And, don't forget to check us out on Facebook -- become a fan of MITSS and of the MITSS HOPE Award. We'd love to hear from you!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

PULSE voices from the heart of medicine

For those of you who haven't heard of this publication, let us tell you a little bit about it. PULSE voices from the heart of medicine was started by a physician who is now Editor in Chief of this publication, his name is Paul Gross. He wanted to know what it would be like to have a publication that told stories of the way medicine really was not the way it is in controlled studies. The stories that have been published thus far from have captured hearts and minds, especially Friday's release.

Babel: The Voices of Medical Trauma is written by a friend and a colleague of MITSS, Tricia Pill, who is a pedetrician who experienced the "real side of medicine", but don't think she got what she expected or wanted.

What do you think of the current state of affairs? Can healthcare do a better job? How? Can we help doctors, nurses, pca's, etc who are both young and old to leave their assumptions at the door with every patient? Can we teach folks to trust that patients and their family members have valuable information about themselves or loved ones? Would love to know how you think we can change things.

You can get your free subscripiton to the magazine by signing up for it on their site.

Warm regards,
Linda Kenney

Feel free to contact me directly at lkenney@mitss.org, if you'd like to discuss off line.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

"Medicine Means Sometimes Having to Say You Are Sorry"

They are ideals that have been touted for some time in healthcare, but where are we now with regard to disclosure and apology? How do disclosure and apology programs fit into the new healthcare legislation? Whose programs are working, and what are the barriers that prevent others from being successful? Check out Joanne Kenen's article in the April 2, 2010, edition of Miller-McCune.
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