This is an old NYTimes op-ed, but it does a good job of summing up what Republican's lost when they refused to confirm Don Berwick as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last year.
Namely: the country lost someone who dared to think of the agency as an improvement organization, and a powerful force for healthcare improvement. In 17 months, he trained executive agency staffers as "improvement coaches" and made strides toward helping health insurers and hospitals find simple ways to improve things like preventing hospital readmissions for chronic conditions.
Imagine what he could do with four more years... Is anyone pushing for this? (Shouldn't we be?)
Dr. Berwick's Pink Slip
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Michele, I'll join your Berwick campaign! I'm a big fan as well. You may have seen this already, but his keynote speech last year to IHI kind of crystallized the changes he sought to make, and I found it quite inspiring. Video and text are here if you want to check it out:
http://www.ihi.org/knowledge/Pages/Presentations/TheMoralTestBerwickForum2011Keynote.aspx
Post a Comment