Co-Author of Landmark Patient Safety Publication “To Err Is Human” to visit Ireland

Sept. 12, 2012 - PRLog -- Mark R. Chassin, M.D., FACP, M.P.P., M.P.H., president, The Joint Commission, who was a member of the committee that authored the landmark medical publication “To Err is Human” will visit Dublin in October. Dr. Chassin will be a featured speaker at the Seminar on Patient Safety organised by Health Care Informed (HCI) and Joint Commission International (JCI), a division of Joint Commission Resources, Inc. (JCR), a wholly controlled, not-for-profit affiliate of The Joint Commission. During his visit, Chassin hopes to take part in a number of one-to-one meetings with government leaders, regulatory bodies and professional bodies.

As president of The Joint Commission, Chassin oversees the activities of the United States’ predominant standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 19,000 health care organisations and programs in the United States. Chassin is also president of the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare. The Center works with leading hospitals and health systems to address health care’s most critical safety and quality problems such as health care-associated infections (HAI), hand-off communications, wrong site surgery, surgical site infections, and preventing avoidable heart failure hospitalizations. The Center develops solutions by applying Robust Process Improvement™ (RPI) methods and tools, to improve the quality and safety of health care. These include Lean Six Sigma, change management process and other change management methodologies and tools for high reliability.

“To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” examined the safety gaps in United States’ health care, noting that as many as 98,000 people die yearly in hospitals due to preventable medical errors. The report cited the health care system, rather than individual health care providers, for widespread errors. “Mistakes can best be prevented by designing the health system at all levels to make it safer — to make it harder for people to do something wrong and easier for them to do it right.” The publication set a national, and indeed international, agenda for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety through the design of a safer health system.

“The drive to improve health care quality and patient safety still continues today,” said Dr. Chassin. “At The Joint Commission we aim to continuously improve health care for the public, by evaluating health care organisations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. I am delighted to be coming to Ireland for the Seminar on Patient Safety, and I look forward to continuing to advance the patient safety agenda in Irish health care,” he added.

John Sweeney, Director, Health Care Informed (HCI), added, “Dr. Chassin is one of the foremost experts on patient safety and health care quality today. His work continues to act as a catalyst for change in patient safety and quality improvement. He has helped put patient safety at the top of the agenda in hospital boardrooms, government, private sector and professional bodies. I am honoured to welcome Dr. Chassin to Ireland. This is a rare opportunity to have someone of this level come to Ireland.”

Dr. Chassin will speak at the Joint Commission International (JCI) and Health Care Informed (HCI) Seminar on Patient Safety on Tuesday, 2nd October 2012. Attendance by invitation only.
ENDS

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