Update: Reforming State Licensure Boards/NPDB

New Gold Sponsor

We welcome a new gold sponsor, Michael Connelly, CEO of Catholic Health Partners (CHP).  CHP consists of seven regional health systems in Ohio and Kentucky that provide a wide range of healthcare services.  All of CHP’s regional health systems include acute care hospitals, and many of them also include long-term care residences, housing sites for the elderly, home health agencies, hospice programs, outreach services and wellness centers.  Thank you, Michael and CHP – we need more sponsors.  Click here!

We believe – possibly – the biggest impact of this campaign will be at the state level, as we seek to reform state licensure boards.  Stop these boards from targeting and punishing clinicians who have disclosed.  And when we say “state licensure boards,” we mean not only for docs, but also for RNs, PAs, and other medical staff.  We are looking to start our efforts in five or six states, be successful, get traction, and move forward.

Message for consumer advocates…

Some consumer advocates have criticized our campaign proposal.  Consumer Union went even so far as to pen and distribute a letter saying our proposal will increase apologies, but hurt patient safety.  Huh?  They even got a friendly reporter to write a hack piece – see here.   

Consumer Union and friends are concerned the proposal will hurt transparency.  Look, I’ve personally spent the last six years going into hospitals convincing docs that most patients/families don’t want to sue…they wants answers, a commitment to fix things, and fair, reasonable compensation.  Not “jackpot justice.”  I tell docs if they want true tort reform, disclosure is the best way to go.  And docs have begun to accept this message.

To consumer advocates I say if they truly want transparency, disclosure is the best way to go.  The ultimate act of transparency is when a doc/healthcare organization sits down with a patient/family, discusses a medical error, apologizes, and makes an effort to fairly compensate for injuries or death.  That is a thousand times more valuable than splashing names of clinicians all over the web or in the newspaper.  Disclosure is the ultimate patient safety initiative, because when docs own mistakes they will fix them.

Moreover, to qualify for our program, a clinician must sit down with the patient/family and apologize — and get the patient/family to sign off when complete. That’s not a “free pass,”….that’s a very tough thing to do!   

Doctors are changing….consumer advocates need to change too.