Boston Hospital’s Honesty Means Bad News About Botches

Posted by Sarah Rubenstein in the Wall Street Journal Health Blog Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, has been lining up with the folks pushing for more transparency in health care. Lately, though, that’s meant some bad publicity about mistakes at the hospital — incidents that are testing Levy’s resolve, the Boston Globe reports this morning. Here’s the Globe’s rundown of some of the problems that have drawn attention: A cosmetic surgeon was fired after appearing to doze off during a liposuction procedure. A surgeon performed a procedure on a the wrong ankle. An anesthesiologist who had previously been terminated was found dead in a hospital closet, in a possible suicide. A woman died during an emergency C-section. (Her baby survived.) The Globe quotes James Conway, president of the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement, who told the newspaper that reports to state agencies indicate Beth Israel’s safety record is in line with most major Boston hospitals. For his part, Levy told the Globe the hospital will be “judged fairly” over time, even if there’s some “short term adverse publicity.” We also came across a lengthy interview with Levy on YouTube, in which he says the hospital’s transparency efforts have upset rival hospitals rather than Beth Israel’s own staff, because those hospitals “thought it put them in a bad light.” “What we were trying to do is demonstrate to the public that we are willing to be held accountable for quality and safety improvements and establish metrics by which we’ll be measured, and to publish our results,” he said. “It also gives a signal to the people in the hospital that they will be held accountable, and maybe they work a little bit harder just because they know that.” Levy Blogging Bonus: Check out his blog, called “Running a Hospital.” Among other things, you’ll see his take on a controversy over a union’s effort to organize the hospital’s workers. And on a seasonal, less serious note, he’s posted this photo of some inebriated pumpkins. Finally, Levy and his blogging ways were the subject of one of our first posts way back in early 2007.