Paul Levy talked at the interimic healthcare event about running a hospital, transparancy, using webblogs and innovation. I just returned from a quick trip to Amsterdam where I was invited to speak at a session called "Health Care Innovation Event", a conference of the CEOs and other top administrators of many of the Dutch hospitals, along with the Dr. Ab Klink, Minister of Health, Welfare, and Sport. I am a little amazed by this -- and no, I am not being falsely modest -- but people are very interested in the quality and safety process improvement steps we have taken at BIDMC and also in our efforts at transparency on this blog and on our hospital's website. I am surprised because I think we are just beginning to tap the potential improvements we can make in this arena, and we consider ourselves as just learning how to do it well. Other hospitals, like those in the Ascension Health system and Cincinnati Children's Hospital, have been at it for a longer time and with greater results. Nonetheless, it is very nice to have a chance to explain our programs to others around the world and to meet really interesting and thoughtful people. Inevitably, I bring back more ideas than I impart. After the formal presentations in Amsterdam (at the amazing ING building!), we had break-out sessions during dinner. (They were very accommodating and made my table the sole English-speaking one.) During the sessions, the facilitator at each table was posting the table's comments in real time on video discussion boards spread around the room. It was like having a dozen simultaneous twitter sites going on! Later, the combined discussion board was used by the MC as a tool for reporting the major conclusions from each table. By the way, the Netherlands has a very interesting and recently enacted insurance program for the country. This replaced the former system of government insurance. All people are required to have insurance and can purchase it from any of a number of private insuran...
Paul Levy talked at the interimic healthcare event about running a hospital, transparancy, using web...
