Medical errors have historically been dealt with through lawsuits and hostile litigious means, despite the fact that most errors are the result of system-wide deficits rather than the shortcomings of individual healthcare providers.  In a recent Newsweek interview, Quaid says that “he doesn’t blame individual doctors, he blames a health-care system that is ill equipped to prevent mistakes.”

Quaid and his wife considered filing a lawsuit against Cedar-Sinai but opted for the more sensible option of working with the hospital to improve its safety measures:

I really don’t know [what happened to the nurse that administered the overdose]. We didn’t meet with her afterwards. There were several nurses involved. I don’t blame any of the nurses. They’re overworked, underappreciated. The reason they get into health care to begin with is they’re there to ease human suffering and they really do care. They’re great people; they’re heroes in our lives. But human error occurs. If I make a mistake in my business, I get a take two. They don’t. And when a mistake occurs, they need help as much as the victims as well, because they’re traumatized by it.

Promoting a culture of safety and reducing medical errors requires selfless leadership, institution of safe-practices such as checklists, and proper use of well-designed technologies. There is currently a lot of room for improvement in all of these domains.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick hailed Neel’s decision as a victory for small businesses and families that have been burdened by years of rising health care expenses saying that “unless insurers can give us a good reason why, when everything else is flat, they deserve 20 percent, 30 percent, and in some cases 40 percent increases, they’re going to be denied.”

The health insurers are gearing up to fight back to get their premium increases. Jay McQuaide, vice president at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts said the judge’s decision was limited to the issue of whether insurers could boost rates immediately and does not mean regulators will ultimately prevail. “We’re confident in the final outcome of the case. We’ll be playing the process out,” McQuaide said.

The health insurers filed a lawsuit against state Insurance Commissioner Joseph G. Murphy last week.

Via Boston Globe

Yesterday President Obama revealed a plan, expected to cost $950 billion over 10 years, to renew the administrations push for healthcare reform.  The plan proposes to provide coverage to more than 31 million uninsured Americans.

More details:

• The plan includes a measure designed to close the Medicare “donut-hole” gap for prescription drug coverage, which leaves seniors paying the full cost of medicines during a certain stage of the programme due to coverage limits.
• Obama proposes increasing fees paid by the pharmaceutical industry $10 billion over 10 years and above the $23-billion increase proposed under the Senate bill. Obama’s plan also delays implementation of these fees by one year to 2011.
• Obama’s plan includes provisions designed to increase access to generic drugs by giving the Federal Trade Commission the authority to address the practice of “pay for delay” agreements between brand name and generic drug manufacturers. The plan suggests prohibiting generic drug manufacturers from accepting “anything of value from a brand-name manufacturer that contains a provision in which the generic drug manufacturer agrees to limit or forgo research, development, marketing, manufacturing or sales of the generic drug.” Such deals could only be reached if the parties “demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the pro-competitive benefits of the agreement outweigh the anti-competitive effects of the agreement.”

The plan will be debated this week at a bipartisan healthcare summit.

Source: FirstWord

On Monday, doctors from around the country will join the President at the White House to show their support for passing health insurance reform legislation this year. These doctors were invited for many reasons: Many are leaders in their communities. Others belong to one of the many physician organizations in this country. All are supporters of health insurance reform. Senior administration official: “We are reaching the end of the Senate Finance Committee process in Washington, so now is a good time to bring the discussion back to Americans who are struggling with rising costs and growing insecurity in the health insurance market in their home towns. Their local doctors see these struggles every day and know more than anyone how cruel and arbitrary the health care system can be. Doctors all around America believe that we need health insurance reform this year. They agree with the President that inaction is not an option, and they are offering their help and support.” Politico

We all know we need health insurance reform but is what the administration proposing the best way to go?

Last month, I talked to three European journalists about the healthcare system in the U.S. and opportunities to improve the care delivery system through a combination of  bottom-up innovation and top-down reform. Above is an article that appeared in an Italian magazine a couple of days ago, outlining the debate on healthcare reform in the U.S. and my thoughts on the issue.

Despite the fact that we spend more per capita on healthcare services, the problems that we have are very similar to those encountered in Europe. We’re all facing a growing demand for healthcare services due to an aging population that continues to acquire more complex, mostly age- and lifestyle-related, diseases.

“The American people want the system of medical justice to change,” states Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard in a press release announcing the poll’s results.  “They are saying it in very large numbers, and they want it to change as part of health care reform.”

I find the results of this poll very promising as I’m doubtful that we can control healthcare costs in a meaningful way without comprehensive reform of our medical liability system.

So here are seven things to watch for during Obama’s address tonight: (POLITICO)

1. Can he keep it simple? Can the President spark enough interest to successfully compete with the season premiere of “So You Think You Can Dance” on FOX?
2. Who is his bad guy? Every good story needs a villain.
3. Where’s that old campaign magic? Can Obama connect with the American people the way he did during the campaign?
4. Does he win the spin? To help Obama’s message go viral, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn will be on whitehouse.gov for a live video chat and will respond to questions coming from Facebook and Twitter
5. Public option or no public option? That is the question.
6. What’s the bite of the night? Expect to hear a lot of sound bites.
7. Can he get Republicans to cheer? It’s important for Republicans to show that they favor reform without endorsing Obama’s controversial ideas.

There are indications that President Obama will mention malpractice reform in his speech. I really hope so, because as you can see here it’s a critical issue that’s been largely left out of the debate.

The French system is in sharp contrast to the American “scoop and run” strategy, where trauma victims are rushed to the hospital while standard techniques are applied by paramedics to stabalize the patient. The US system is based on studies showing that “trauma victim’s best chance for survival is reaching the operating room within 10 minutes.”

As NBC News reports, the French system’s handling of the accident is raising questions on whether Princess Diana would’ve survived had the accident occurred in the US.

I suppose in every healthcare system, there are those who fall through the cracks.

One of the recent commentaries on CNN is an interesting account of Dr. Vance Harris’s frustrations as a primary care physician. I had published an earlier piece by Dr. Harris on my blog last year called “Not in a Million Years.”

After venting out a bit, Dr. Harris ends his commentary with:

Good luck recruiting primary care specialists when we are projected to be short 39,000 by 2020, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. And nearly half of all doctors surveyed by the Physicians’ Foundation have said that over the next three years they plan to reduce the number of patients they see or stop practicing entirely.

I know this is true because I am struggling to find a primary care doctor to take care of my wife and myself. Now that is ironic. Anyone know who is taking new patients in California?

Dr. Harris initially posted his commentary on Sermo and was met with great words of moral support from his colleagues.

Only 30 percent of executives representing the health care industry in the United States say their companies are ready for reform and changing economic conditions… 76 percent say the impact of reform on the industry will be significant, and 54 percent say the same about the effects of the current economic crisis.

This report also found that those who feel prepared are the ones  that “drive innovation in a wider range of areas, including product design, customer service, and IT.”

Innovation and controlled experimentation are now necessary ingredients for healthcare organizations if they wish to survive, adapt, and truly prosper.