Supporting Safer Healthcare

One woman’s courageous response to a devastating sentinel event: My mother was critically burned during surgery in December 2002 when a topical solution was not allowed to dry before the doctor used a cauterizing tool. The entire experience was awful, but the worst realization for me was that nobody would listen. No one apologized, no one showed much [...]

After last week’s news about Tareq and Michaele Salahi’s White House adventures I began to consider whether, if one were applying healthcare criteria, the event would be classified as Sentinel or Near Miss. Some unanticipated healthcare outcomes are clearly Sentinel (an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof, per the Joint Commission).  Many times [...]