Government Reports Criticize Healthcare System

I came across a recent article in the New York Times that discusses the fact that american healthcare has in fact not made that much progress in quality improvement, that the disparities gap is not narrowing, and that patient safety may be declining. This report was released by the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research.

This raises several interesting questions regarding the impact of interventions such as the campaign to save 5 million lives, CVL checklist to decrease catheter related infections, the introduction of rapid response teams, and numerous other quality interventions in the inpatient and outpatient arena. We should certainly be better off than we were a number of years ago.

Clearly shows the need for the Open School and the need to train agents of change among the next generation of health professionals so that quality improvement and patient safety are principles that are taught in school and connected with patient and system examples during the clinical years and beyond. The need for formal curriculum is quite evident at this juncture.

Best
Jay