Lucian Leape Institute Thought Leaders Define Strategies for Patient Safety

BOSTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ — The Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation has identified five strategic concepts designed to accelerate the integration of critical patient safety imperatives into the fabric of health care. These concepts challenge conventional wisdom, encourage new ways of thinking, and provide a visionary approach to removing the structural impediments to the adoption of patient safety solutions.

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These transforming concepts, thought to be essential to the success of patient safety work and requiring system-level attention and action, include: reforming medical education; enhanced consumer and patient involvement in patient care; the expectation of full transparency in patient care; care integration in and across health care organizations; and restoration of pride, meaning, and joy in professional work.

“By scope and intent, these transformational directives for the field strive to bring clarity to what is needed to drive change and ultimately deliver on the promise of patient safety,” explained Dr. Lucian Leape, a founding member of the Institute and renowned leader in patient safety.

The Institute functions as a think tank dedicated to providing strategic vision for the field, and distinguished members bring a wealth of knowledge to bear in support of the Institute’s efforts.

These thought leaders include Dr. Lucian Leape, Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health; Dr. Donald Berwick, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; Dr. Carolyn Clancy, Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; James Conway, Senior Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; James Guest, President, Consumer Union; Dr. David Lawrence, Chairman and CEO (retired), Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals; Julianne Morath, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Dr. Dennis O’Leary, President Emeritus, The Joint Commission; Paul O’Neill, Former Chairman and CEO, Alcoa, and 72nd Secretary of the U.S. Treasury; Dr. Paul Gluck, Immediate Past Chair, National Patient Safety Foundation Board of Directors; and Diane Pinakiewicz, President, National Patient Safety Foundation.

Ms. Pinakiewicz praised the Institute’s leadership for “their unwavering commitment to creating a safer heath care system, applying their extensive experiences, expertise, and insights to not only create a vision for the future, but to develop actionable recommendations to influence change.”

Reform in Medical Education, the first concept addressed by the Institute, is the subject of a Roundtable comprised of Institute members and invited experts. “Medical education in the United States is heavily focused on the acquisition of scientific and clinical facts,” commented Dr. Leape, “but provides students with little of the knowledge and skills they need to communicate and work effectively with patients and colleagues.”

Recommendations and calls to action from the Roundtable will be issued in an Institute white paper, providing the strategic leverage necessary to influence the system, create change, and offer needed focus and direction for those working in the field.

About the Institute and National Patient Safety Foundation

The Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation was founded in May 2007 to provide strategic direction for the field of patient safety. Through its Roundtable process, the Institute will provide vision and context for the many efforts already underway within the health care field and will call for large-scale changes necessary to accelerate patient safety work. The Lucian Leape Institute is a program of the National Patient Safety Foundation(R), an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that has been pursuing one mission — improving the safety of patients — since its founding in 1997. For more information, visit http://www.npsf.org/.

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The Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation

CONTACT: Bernadette Lupo, of The Lucian Leape Institute at the NationalPatient Safety Foundation, +1-413-663-2018, [email protected]

Web site: http://www.npsf.org/