The United States government, for all its exasperating foibles and silliness, retains the capacity to surprise and even delight. Five years ago, who could have guessed that we would elect a centrist African-American president with a middle name of Hussein. Three years ago, who could have guessed that our deeply divided Congress would pass ambitious [...]
Archive | June, 2012
The New and Improved “Understanding Patient Safety” and the Evolution of the Safety Field
Let me get the Shameless Commerce portion of this post out of the way: the second edition of my book, Understanding Patient Safety, was published this month by McGraw-Hill. I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy. That done, I’ll turn to something more interesting: the rapid evolution of the safety field, as seen through [...]
Why the Supreme Court’s Healthcare Decision Will Mean a Lot… and Not So Much
Like waiting outside the Vatican for the puff of white smoke, the nation sits on edge awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act. The ruling, which is likely to be announced next week, could toss out the entire healthcare reform bill, chop off one of its limbs (probably the so-called individual mandate), [...]
On Swiss Cheese and Patient Safety
Professor James Reason is the intellectual father of the patient safety field. I remember reading his book Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents in 1999 and having the same feeling that I had when I first donned eyeglasses: I saw my world anew, in sharper focus. Reason’s “Swiss cheese” model, in particular – which holds [...]
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