I'm excited to be playing host for a KaiNexus webinar on August 30 on a topic that's very important to me (and to many) — patient safety.
As I mentioned yesterday on LinkedIn, estimates suggest that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States, with approximately 250,000 deaths a year… and that's four times as many deaths as caused by the opioid crisis.
Don't get me wrong, opioid abuse and what happens to patients who end up addicted is horrible. But the newly-named “national emergency” of opioid abuse gets far more attention than what I would call “the international patient safety emergency” that has been around for a long time.
I try bringing attention to the serious, yet solvable, problem of patient harm caused by preventable medical error. That's why I'm happy that we'll have three presenters on the 30th on this topic:
“Teaming with Patients to Improve Safety“
Click here to register to view the recording – the webinar is free. Please share it with healthcare providers and anybody who is interested in our healthcare system. The key team involves healthcare providers, patients, and their loved ones.
I was able to record a short podcast with one of the presenters, my friend Laura Townsend. She is the co-founder and president of the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation.
Here is the podcast episode (from the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Podcast series):
Here are some key points from that discussion:
- Laura will share the story about how her mother, Louise Batz, died tragically due to medical error after knee surgery
- Laura will be talking about tools that they created with healthcare providers to help protect patients, including:
- The Batz Guides (books and free PDFs)
- The free Batz Guide iPad app
- Laura will be joined by two healthcare professionals who are part of this team: Elise Matocha, BSN, RN, an ONC Director, Clinical Performance Improvement and Carol Wratten, MD MBA FACOG, retired from the Seton Healthcare Family organization. “They've really been so vital to the success of our organization and to using our tools.”
- Elise will talk about how the guides have been valuable to patients and the healthcare team
- Carol is a former CMO of a system in San Antonio and has “been so amazingly wonderful and helpful in helping us create a process for how to integrate our tools into a healthcare system.”
- Laura and her family created the Guides because, while they were engaged in her mother's care, there were certain questions they did not know to ask. The Guide helps others know what they should pay attention to, track, and ask questions about… not to blame caregivers, but to be partners with them in protecting everybody.
I appreciate how Laura and her family responded to a tragedy with such love, channeling their energy into helping others. I hope you'll watch the webinar.
Please also check out this previous post about the Foundation:
Note: I'm honored to be on the board of the Batz Foundation and all proceeds from our book “Practicing Lean” are being donated to the Foundation, over $2200 to date.
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