In an editorial to be published in the June/July issue of the Journal of Healthcare Quality, Cynthia Barnard, director of quality at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, asserts: “If our healthcare quality and safety data lack integrity, if our staff work in fear, we will never be able to improve the care we provide, we will see another decade and half slip by without progress, and more patients will be harmed by medical error.”
Cynthia Barnard is available for interviews with journalists interested in reporting how healthcare organizations can establish better accountability for the integrity of their quality and safety systems. She also will discuss how implementation of the Accountable Care Act and other evolving healthcare policy could jump start efforts to improve the safety culture in U.S. hospitals. Barnard is a co-author of "Safeguarding the Integrity of Healthcare Quality and Safety Systems," a call to action issued by the National Association for Healthcare Quality on Oct. 16, 2012.
RSS