School is still in session

Classes may be over for the year at colleges and medical schools across the country, but one school stays open day and night, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Open School. Back in December, I wrote about the open thread covering the wrong-side surgery that occurred at BIDMC last July. It still goes on, with comments filed several times a week.

When we publicized this "never event" through our hospital, our main purpose was to inform our staff so they could learn from it, and so that our remediation planning would have hospital-wide participation and support. That goal was achieved, demonstrating the power of transparency in this kind of setting.

But our purpose also was to splay this case out for the world to see, to provide lessons for other hospitals. Doing so is consistent with our role as an academic medical center and our societal objective of reducing harm to patients, wherever they are treated. IHI's Open School has played an important part in that process, and I am grateful to them for making the service available -- at no charge -- to the entire world. Read the comments and participate: There is good stuff happening on-line. School is always in session.