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?
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?
Paul O'Neill: Negadit Contrarian [We got some of'em right here at FR]
O'Neill is obviously the smartest person in the world.
How dumb of us not to embrace his superiority over all things, big and small.
Does not play well with others.