As I mentioned in my last post, these should be the best of times for ''Infection Preventionists'' (formerly known as Infection Control Officers). After years of trying to get someone – anyone – to pay attention to their work, their day in the sun has finally arrived. But they are far from a joyful bunch. Why?In my talk to 4,000 members of the ...

I gave a keynote yesterday to the first-ever meeting on “Diagnostic Error in Medicine.” I hope the confab helps put diagnostic errors on the safety map. But, as Ricky Ricardo would say, the experts and advocates in the audience have some ‘splainin’ to do.I date the origin of the patient safety field to the publication of the IOM report on medical ...

This is one of the most commonly asked questions in IT World, and my answer has always been “CPOE first” – largely because that has always been David Bates’s (the world’s leading IT/safety researcher) answer. But I’ve changed my mind. Here’s why.Before I start, I promised that I’d let you know if I ever blogged on a topic in which I have a ...

Last night, my house shook for 10 seconds or so in a 5.6 earthquake. I've felt a couple of dozen of them since moving to San Francisco in the mid-80s. When the rumbling begins, the thought chain is always interesting. It goes like this:Initial Thought: Hey, is that an earthquake, or is the subway going by?Seconds 2-4: Oh yeah, the subway is more ...

One of the more interesting recent concepts in the healthcare IT world is that of the “RHIO”: a Regional Health Information Organization. The idea is that – while we’ll never overcome the legal and privacy concerns to create a single national electronic healthcare record (at least not in my lifetime) – we might be able to create one within a ...