Posted on 12/08/2004 9:32:30 PM PST by pittsburgh gop guy
I knew, just knew, that because this was on freerepublic it would be about character assassination, with no comment on the actual subject - nearly 100,000 people killed by medication errors.
Any thoughts on the actual subject? I know hospitals are spending money on IT in order to try and track medication through the process in order to prevent these kinds of mistakes. I wonder why UPMC was so resistant.
"O'Neill maintained that his main reason for leaving UPMC's board was the health system's refusal earlier this year to participate in a proposed PRHI undertaking in which participating hospitals would have committed to eliminating all medication errors.
The campaign, which was never launched, would have begun with identifying errors that occurred because of the illegibility of handwriting on prescriptions.
"The reason to start there is it engages the first people in the process ... namely the doctors," he said.
O'Neill said UPMC's unwillingness to participate in the project made him question the system's desire to be held to measurable standards of quality."
"Uh, anyone get the picture that the guy is hard to get along with?"
Right or wrong, that message is coming through loud and clear. Maybe he needs to start another world tour with Bono, et al.
I'm sure between the two of them they could solve all the world's problems, if only the rest of us would listen to them.
Mr. O'Neil, Mr. Bono, I recommend you start in Darfur. Those people need some help, STAT! After that, off to the Ivory Coast. The UN and the French are making a hash of things, AFRICA NEEDS YOU!
I'm starting to think that Paul O'Neill is just a whiny little b!tch...
The question is, how can he believe only he is correct,and everyone else is wrong?
So Freerepublic is about character assassination?
"I knew, just knew, that because this was on freerepublic it would be about character assassination, with no comment on the actual subject..."
Well, aren't you a jolly fellow? Please don't take that as character assassination...
This is just another story about Paul O'Neill being difficult. If he were a true leader, he would convince others and bring them around to his point of view. He was ok in the corporate world, but a terrible Treasury Secretary - and after being fired he attacked the Bush Administration.
This guy is psychotic.
O'Neill has said he is convinced that eliminating medical errors is the key not just to improving quality but to lowering runaway health care costs, possibly by as much as half.
Yeah right. NOT! Pointing out medical errors is the same as dialing direct to John Edwards and saying his ship is in again and again and again....You get the picture.
This isn't so hard..... where are most of the errors occurring? Deal with THEM. As someone who was a technician in both hospital and retail pharmacies, I can say that errors were very few and far between in any pharmacy I worked in. Yes, errors do happen. We are not perfect beings. Look at the facilities where the majority of the errors occur, and fix it! Some administrations might be in need of upheaval, so upheave away! That's most likely a big part of the problem.
He just doesn't seem to be positive about anyplace that he works. He reminds me of the old Groucho joke about not wanting to join a club that would have him. Maybe he just shouldn't take any job he's offered as he knows that it involves problems in an imperfect world. And isn't the mission to solve problems why he was asked to be a cabinet member, etc., in the first place?
The campaign, which was never launched, would have begun with identifying errors that occurred because of the illegibility of handwriting on prescriptions.
"The reason to start there is it engages the first people in the process ... namely the doctors," he said.
Anyone who has spent any time in a Pharmacy knows how to read that writing, whereas a layman has no clue. Any time any pharmacist is unsure about the prescription, whether it be the "handwriting", or a myriad of other questions, ie - the drug itself, the dosage, interactions, the condition of the patient.....all of these things are paid close attention to, and if there is any concern at all, the physician is asked. If you are in a hospital environment where the administration treats doctors like gods, and those docs get used to that kind of treatment, that COULD hinder the pharmacy personell in dealing with questions.....
OK, so what did he accomplish by picking up his marbles?
He basically performed the same duties for the admin.
He did nothing because he is a jerk!
<< This guy is psychotic. >>
Or -- more likely -- an Alcoholic.
O'Neill's public persona is that of a classic sufferer of that progressive, incurable, degenerative and [Unless put in remission by total abstinence] inevitably fatal disease that annually kills more Americans than the next score of diseases combined: Alcoholism.
[A physical allergy to alcohol that manifests itself in the phenomenon of craving -- And not to be confused with the consequences of defective behavior often called "addiction"]
If being a psychotic is knowing 2+2=5 and being completely comfortable with that fact -- and being a neurotic is knowing that 2+2=4 and not being able to stand it -- such is alcohol's ability to alter an Alcoholic's -- and ONLY an Alcoholic's -- perception of reality that only an Alcoholic may experience both states on an alternating basis.
Whether a daily or a binge drinker, every Alcoholic suffers an ever-increasingly-intense neurotic state until, by imbibing alcohol, he induces his own temporary effective psychosis and thereby relieves himself of the requirement that he learn to deal with reality.
Or, in other words, grows up.
O'Neill needs, before it is too late -- and he is dead from his disease, to sober up and then to grow up and learn to afford himself the dignity of the consequences of his own behavior.
After all, after you have grandiosely blamed the President and Armed-Forces Commander-In-Chief of the United States of America for what ails yah -- who is there left to blame?
Paul O'Neill: Negadit Contrarian [We got some of'em right here at FR]
Intended to save you from a doctor or nurse incorrectly dosing patients (either by time, amount, interaction, etc.) and killing almost 100,000 of them annually. These are preventable mistakes, but the doctors are balking a system that would identify the mistakes they make. If you can't even acknowledge it, how can you ever rectify it?
These are preventable mistakes, but the doctors are balking a system that would identify the mistakes they make. If you can't even acknowledge it, how can you ever rectify it?
I don't believe that they are not acknowledging it. They just are not making it available to lawsuit happy lawyers and I don't blame them. For another thing, who came up with the figure 100,000? If they are able to come up with this number they sure can come up with names, dates, cause and the prescribed treatment. Doctors and nurses are not perfect and mistakes can and will be made. Just because they have a Dr.or RN in front of their names should not make them a target of lawsuit happy lawyers and relatives.
You know he has a drinking problem, or you suspect it based on his behavior?
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