I don’t follow much basketball these days. But the week of the NCAA finals always takes me down memory lane. For I, you see, was in the Final Four, thirty-four years ago. Funny thing is, I am an awful basketball player. My role will come to you if you answer the following trivia question: Who [...]
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Denying Reality About Bad Prognoses: Not a Benign Problem
The human capacity to deny reality is one of our defining characteristics. Evolutionarily, it has often served us well, inspiring us to press onward against long odds. Without denial, the American settlers might have aborted their westward trek somewhere around Pittsburgh; Steve Jobs might thrown up his hands after the demise of the Lisa; and [...]
Gregory House, MD, RIP
The final episode of the show House, MD airs on FOX tonite. I wrote the following op-ed piece for USA Today; it’ll appear there tomorrow morning and is reproduced here with permission. Dr. Gregory House hung up his stethoscope and cane for the last time last night and shuffled off into eternal life in the [...]
Important Notice For Email Subscribers To Wachter’s World
Dear Readers: Later today, Wachter’s World will get a facelift, as we migrate to a new “platform” (don’t ask me what that means but the good folks at Wiley, and your teenage children, will know). This will make the website more stable, give it better graphics, and prevent it from crashing and blocking comments, as [...]
Never Say Never (Events)
Earlier this month, the National Quality Forum released its revised list of “Serious Reportable Events in Healthcare, 2011,” with four new events added to the list. While the NQF no longer refers to this list as “Never Events,” it doesn’t really matter, since everyone else does. And this shorthand has helped make this list, which [...]
A Year of Blogging Dangerously
Well, folks, time flies. Today marks the first anniversary of the launch of Wachter’s World. I’ve learned a lot in a year. For example, a year ago, I thought you became a Russia expert by reading books and newspapers, not by trans-waterway osmosis. Anyway, I thought I’d use the occasion of the anniversary to recount [...]
Bob’s Books (and Articles and Websites)
Here are a few of my books: Understanding Patient Safety (McGraw-Hill’s Lange Series, 2008): A lively, up-to-date primer on patient safety, full of case vignettes, tools, and other key resources. Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America’s Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes (“Updated Version”, Rugged Land, 2005): A bestselling book that uses dramatic cases of medical [...]
Why a Blog?
It’s not like you don’t have enough to read, or that I don’t have enough to do. So, why do I blog? And why should you read? We are in the early days of a revolution in healthcare. The hospitalist field has grown from an idea – given breath by a handful of hardy pioneers [...]
Bob’s Favorite Links
Here are a few of the healthcare links I enjoy reading: ABIM Foundation Medical Professionalism Blog An Insider’s View on Health CareClinical Cases and Images BlogComarow on QualityDB’s Medical RantsEGMN Notes from the RoadGeriPalHappy HospitalistHealth Affairs BlogHealth Beat BlogHealth Care BlogHealthcare IT GuyHealth Care RenewalHealth Care Organizational EthicsKevin, MDNeil Versel’s Healthcare IT BlogNotes from Dr. [...]
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