The Doctors Company Names Lucian L. Leape, M.D., As Recipient of Award for the Advancement of Patient Safety
NAPA, Calif., Aug. 7 /PRNewswire/ — The Doctors Company, the nation’s leading physician-owned medical malpractice insurance provider, is pleased to award Lucian L. Leape, M.D. with The Doctors Company Award for the Advancement of Patient Safety. The award is designed to draw public and industry attention to the importance of patient safety within the medical profession and to recognize physicians who demonstrate leadership in this area.
The Doctors Company is honoring Dr. Leape for his important leadership contributions to the national patient safety movement. He was an early advocate of the systems approach to preventing medical error and his 1994 paper, “Error in Medicine,” drew national attention to this problem. His research has focused on the identification and correction of system failures that often contribute to the adverse medical events leading to patient injury.
“Dr. Leape has shifted the national focus from blaming individual caregivers to the importance of redesigning the health systems medical care is delivered in. This new approach to preventing medical error is the foundation of the patient safety movement and has been a major contribution to enhancing patient safety in the American health care system,” said David B. Troxel, M.D., medical director for The Doctors Company.
Dr. Leape is an Adjunct Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has written over 100 peer-reviewed articles identifying where system failures occur within our health system, proposing solutions to improving clinical systems and processes, exploring ways for providers to report and openly discuss medical errors to prevent their recurrence, and identifying common ground for health care professionals, hospitals, patients, payers, and regulators to work together to improve patient safety.
Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 1988, Dr. Leape was Professor of Surgery and Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts-New England Medical Center. He was one of the founding members of the National Patient Safety Foundation and now serves as a Distinguished Advisor. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Quality of Care in America Committee whose reports, “To Err is Human” and “Crossing the Quality Chasm,” drew national attention to the magnitude of patient injury resulting from medical error and the need to redesign our systems in order to improve patient safety. He is an advocate of institutional programs that promote the open disclosure of adverse medical events to patients and was a member of the Full Disclosure Working Group that generated, “When Things go Wrong, Responding to Adverse Events,” a consensus statement of the Harvard Hospitals.
“I am honored to receive this award and to join with providers, payers, insurers, and regulators in the accelerating and increasingly successful effort to make health care safe,” said Lucian L. Leape, M.D.
About The Doctors Company
Founded by doctors for doctors in 1976 to advance and protect the practice of good medicine, The Doctors Company (http://www.thedoctors.com/ ) is the nation’s leading physician-owned medical malpractice insurance provider. With $1.9 billion in assets, an A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company, and an A- (Strong) rating by Fitch Ratings, The Doctors Company enjoys a reputation as the industry vanguard.
The Doctors Company
CONTACT: Jesmine Hulsey of The Doctors Company, +1-707-226-0247
Web site: http://www.thedoctors.com/