Roundtable on Public Policy Affecting Patient Safety

On April 15, 2010, patient safety experts were assembled to discuss the adequacy of the public policy response to the Institute of Medicine report To Err is Human 10 years after its publication. The experts concluded that additional government actions should be considered. Actions that deserve consideration include the development of an educational campaign to improve public and provider understanding of the issue as a means to support change similar to successful public health campaigns, support the evolution of payment reform away from fee for service, create a clearer aim or goal for patient safety activities, support the development and use of better safety measures to judge status and improvement, and support for additional learning of what works particularly on implementation issues. Participants included: Moderator Robert Crane, senior advisor, Kaiser Permanente Participants Doug Bonacum, vice president, Safety Management, Kaiser Permanente Janet Corrigan, PhD, president and CEO, National Quality Forum Helen Darling, MA, president and CEO, National Business Group on Health Susan Edgman-Levitan, PA, executive director, John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation, Massachusetts General Hospital David M. Lawrence, MD, MPH, chairman and CEO (Retired), Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, Inc Lucian Leape, MD, adjunct professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health Diane C. Pinakiewicz, president, National Patient Safety Foundation Robert M. Wachter, MD, professor and associate chairman, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco