It's Not About Blame
I went with some friends and colleagues from Pulse Centerfor Patient Safety Education & Advocacy yesterday to meet with a
businessman to talk about our brilliant ideas to improve patient safety. After all, this is a public safety issue. Patient safety and medical errors is not only
focusing inside the hospitals, nursing homes and doctor’s office. Patient safety starts long before a person
becomes a patient. We are people. No matter our color, age, gender, bank account,
career choice, path we have taken in life or education – we are all people.
It was interesting when this businessman
realized we were not there to complain about the system. He was ready for an argument – blame. “No” we told him, “blame, accountability,
anger and punishment all come after the fact.”
We are not there to blame or hold anyone accountable. This is not what we do. Our goal is to keep people from getting
injured or worse.
Accountability, apology, disclosure all mean someone has been hurt and
we have not done our job. As a community
based organization, we can’t expect to improve if we continue leaving it up to one
side of the aisle to fix this 20 year discussion of medical errors.
The public must be better involved. At Pulse CPSEA we can help make that happen!
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