Medicare is now reporting actual risk-adjusted mortality rates for pneumonia, MI, and heart failure. The topic must be important, since ''Talk of the Nation'' spent 30 minutes yesterday interviewing Don Berwick and me about it… on the day of Hillary’s speech!To listen to the show, click here. Also, here’s an article from USA Today that got the ...

Just returning from a work-acation, including a talk in Buenos Aires. Today I’ll briefly cover a few items: Medicare’s final “no pay” list; patient safety in Argentina; a great post on hospital finances; and one of the saddest things I’ve ever experienced.First, the final “no pay” list. I’m not sure if this was CMS’s intent, but their trial ...

In this month’s issue of the Joint Commission Journal of Quality and Patient Safety, I (with UCSF’s Adams Dudley and the American Hospital Association's Nancy Foster) tackle this provocative question. The answer may surprise you: yes (probably). The devil will be in the details.I hope you’ll have a chance to read the full article (the Joint ...

The patient safety and quality movements are precious and fragile. Just as IOM reports I and II spawned these modern, life-saving revolutions, the Federal shutdown of the Hopkins/Michigan checklist program may help extinguish them. After all, Tipping Points can tip both ways.I laid out the issues in this prior post. Those of you who know me know ...

As you may know, I’ve argued that that the quality and safety of healthcare have traditionally been underregulated. But regulators are like patients with Parkinson’s: it’s hard to get them unglued, but once they’re moving, it’s hard to stop them. Welcome to Exhibit A.Last month, I described Atul Gawande’s thrilling New Yorker article recounting ...

Great quote by USC cardiologist Leslie Saxon (a reporter reached her on her cell phone as Leslie was shopping) on this week’s NEJM study on delayed defibrillation: “You’re better off having your arrest [here] at Nordstrom [than in a hospital]… because there are 15 people around me.”You’ve probably seen the study, a detailed analysis of ...