Carey Goldberg over at CommonHealth reported on a speech by Sandra Coletta, head of Rhode Island's Kent Hospital at this year's annual dinner of MITSS. I won't steal her thunder, but will simply say that this is about the values demonstrated by a leader of a hospital when she acknowledged its systemic errors in the death of a patient.
Back in September, 2008, I related some stories of this type, where other leaders likewise took responsibility. I am sorry that it remains newsworthy that a hospital leader would act in this way, but it is still unusual enough to warrant attention.
3 comments:
A very honest CEO, especially one who had just taken the job when the incident occurred. However, there is a proliferation of health safety institutes or foundations with hospital-killed people's names on them (Josie King at Hopkins is another example). This fact alone is a cardinal symptom of the underlying disease - apathy.
As you say, Paul, what does it take? Too much, in these cases.
nonlocal MD
"I'm sorry". "We were wrong". "This needs to be fixed". "We will fix this". "We will try to do better". Such simple phrases. So powerful. This RI hospital dissipated the bad press almost instantaneously and rose above. You would think another large hospital group in the area would do the same with repeated defensive statements about repeated mis-steps...yet they still retreat to the trenches. Much to learn here.
Another perspective:
http://blogs.hcpro.com/patientsafety/2011/11/apologies-and-action-for-famous-actors-only/
nonlocal
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