"Josie's Story" a National MS Society Books for a Better Life Winner
Last night, the National MS Society chose Sorrel's book
Josie's Story as the winner in the "First Book" category of their Books for a Better Life Award. Many thanks to the New York City - Southern New York Chapter of the National MS Society for this honor. The recognition came on a particularly poignant day, as yesterday was the ninth anniversary of Josie's death. Thanks again to the National MS Society, and everybody who has read and shared the book.
For more information on the Books for a Better Life Award and the National MS Society, visit
their website.
Labels: Book, by Andrea
Care Journal on Back Order
Hello everybody-
The Care Journals are currently on back order. We hope to have Care Journals back in stock in late February. We are adding requests for Care Journals to a wait list, and will ship Care Journals as soon as we can.
Please continue to email your questions or requests to
carejournal@josieking.org during this time.
Thank you for understanding.
-Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, Care Journal
50 Influential Women
Hello everybody-
Sorrel has been named one of 50 influential women who are changing the world by Woman's Day magazine.
Read Sorrel's story and see the entire list
here.
Thanks to Woman's Day for this honor!
-Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, Sorrel
Shipment Notice for 2009
Hello everybody-
The last shipment of 2009 will be mailed on Thursday, December 17. Requests received by 4:00 pm EST on Wednesday, December 16 will be included in the shipment. Requests received after 4:00 pm EST on Wednesday, December 16 will be shipped in January 2010.
Affected items include:
- "The Josie King Story" DVD
- Signed copies of Josie's Story
- Care Journal (small quantities only)
- Nursing Journal (small quantities only)
We may be able to facilitate bulk orders of the Care Journal and Nursing Journal through the end of December. Please email Andrea at
awesol@josieking.org if you are interested in learning more details.
Thanks for understanding!
-Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, Shipment
"Josie's Story" named a top health book in 2009
Hello everybody-
Josie's Story has been chosen as one of the top health books in 2009 by the Wall Street Journal's Laura Landro!
Her description of
Josie's Story plus the other books honored can be found online:
http://tinyurl.com/yfu6xgu.
We'll be reading some of Laura's other interesting choices.
Thanks for the acknowledgement!
-Andrea
Labels: Book, by Andrea
Sorrel's Visit to Richmond, VA
Hello everybody-
On Tuesday, October 27, Sorrel is visiting her home town of Richmond, VA, for a book event:
St. Stephen's Parish Hall
6000 Grove Avenue
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Sorrel will discuss her book
Josie's Story, and the medical errors that led to her daughter Josie's death.
If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to awesol@josieking.org.
Thanks!
-Andrea
Labels: Book, by Andrea
Josie's Story Excerpt on Oprah.com
Hi everybody-
Just wanted to share some exciting news: there is an excerpt from Sorrel's book
Josie's Story now up on
Oprah.com. Please click to read it, and share the link with anybody you think might be interested.
Thanks!
-Andrea
Labels: Book, by Andrea
Watch Sorrel on NBC's TODAY Show
This morning, Sorrel appeared on NBC's TODAY Show with Matt Lauer and Dr. Nancy Snyderman. They discussed the problem of medical errors, and
Josie's Story.
Thanks!
Labels: Book, by Andrea, Interview, Medical Errors
From the Institute for Family-Centered Care Conference
Hi there-
In August, Sorrel had the opportunity to attend the
Institute for Family-Centered Care's 4th International Conference in Philadelphia. The Institute for Family-Centered Care (IFCC) is a non-profit working with patient advocates and health care providers to improve care delivery. Sorrel was honored to deliver the closing plenary address. IFCC hosted two book signings in support of
Josie's Story. Sorrel loved meeting with the dedicated conference attendees, who are going back to hospitals all around the country and work to strengthen productive partnerships between families and health care providers. Thank you to everybody who stopped by the book table.
Here are two pictures from Philly:
Photo Credit: Institute for Family Centered Care
Photo Credit: Institute for Family Centered Care
Thanks to the entire IFCC's team- with a special nod to Bev Johnson and Julie Ginn Moretz- for their hard work in creating a meaningful, successful conference!
-Andrea
P.S.- Come back next week for a special note from Sorrel.
Labels: Book, by Andrea, Speaking
Parents the "Missing Link" in Patient Safety Efforts
Hello everybody-
A fascinating new report on the role of parents in pediatric patient safety efforts is published in the July 30 issue of
Journal of Hospital Medicine (paid registration required). A summary of the article is available through the
University of Michigan.
Beth A. Tarini, MD, MS, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, and her co-authors Paula Lozano, MD, MPH, and Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, of the Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute, looked into parents' perceptions of medical errors, patient safety, and communication. They found that nearly two-thirds of parents felt that they had to closely oversee their children's hospital care to prevent a medical error from happening.
Interestingly, parents who reported a higher level of confidence in communicating with the medical team were less likely to be worried by the potential for medical errors.
Dr. Tarini draws an important conclusion: "We need to address parents' concerns about errors and find ways to make them feel comfortable talking to us about their child's care. Parents are an underutilized resource in our efforts to prevent medical errors."
I can't echo Dr. Tarini's sentiment enough. While some parents are trained medical professionals, most are not. But parents- because of their close relationships with their children- are often able to sense important but subtle changes in their children's conditions. Parents are more than visitors. They have the potential to meaningfully contribute to their children's medical care. Time has come to harness that potential.
-Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, Communication, parents, pediatrics
JKF now on Facebook!
Hello everybody-
First Twitter, now Facebook!
The Josie King Foundation now has a presence on Facebook. Please check us out and link to us.
Thanks for your support!
-Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, Facebook
Summer Shipping Details
Hello everybody-
Just a quick note to let you know that there will be a shipment of "The Josie King Story" DVDs and single copies of the Care Journal going out on Wednesday, July 22. If you would like a copy of either the DVD or the Care Journal soon, please email
awesol@josieking.org by 5 pm EST on Tuesday, July 21.
Requests received after Tuesday at 5 pm will be shipped the week of August 14th.
We will still be able to process bulk Care Journal requests during this time.
Thanks for understanding!
-Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, Care Journal, DVD
"The Josie King Story" DVD is back in stock
Hello everybody-
Just a note to let you know that "The Josie King Story" DVD is back in stock. Email
dvd@josieking.org to order a copy. Thanks for your patience!
-Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, DVD
Josie King Foundation now on Twitter
Hello everybody-
I'm happy to report that the Josie King Foundation is now on Twitter! You can follow us at
www.twitter.com/jkfaw.
We're looking forward to connecting with the patient safety community here.
How do you use Twitter?
-Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, twitter
Update: IHI On Call Transcript and Audio Download Now Available
Hi everybody-
Just wanted to spread the word that the transcript and audio download of Sorrel's
IHI On Call session are now available at
IHI's Open School website.
We hope that you enjoy the conversation. Feel free to comment on the session here, or at
IHI's Open School blog.
Thanks,
Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, resources
Thank you, LeanBlog!
Happy New Year!
The charity auction organized by
Lean Hospitals author and
LeanBlog editor Mark Graban has ended. Thanks to the winner, whose support will help us continue our grassroots patient safety work in 2009. Of course, thanks to Mark for his time and great idea!
We wish you a healthy, safe 2009.
Labels: by Andrea, charity auction
Charity Online Auction to Benefit JKF
Thanks to the generosity of Mark Graban, the Josie King Foundation is the charity beneficiary of an
online auction.
Mark Graban is a quality consultant who recently wrote
Lean Hospitals, a book that applies the "lean" techniques of quality improvement and employee satisfaction to the healthcare setting. Mark is also the founder of
LeanBlog and LeanPodcast.
The item for auction is a 4-CD podcast of Mark speaking with lean expert Norman Bodek and one of Mr. Bodek's books, autographed by the author himself.
Please check out Mark's blog and consider making a bid to support the Josie King Foundation. The auction ends Friday, December 19th.
Thanks again, Mark!
Labels: by Andrea, charity auction
"Don't think that you are more safe in a place just because they don't talk about their errors. "
With Labor Day right around the corner, I'm catching up on some
healthcare blog reading that I've missed out on while enjoying the summer. Earlier this month on "
Running a Hospital" Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy discusses transparency in the patient safety realm.
BIDMC took the bold step to report the incidence of preventable harm events on their very public website. You can take a look at the report
here.
For each of the Joint Commission's preventable harm events, BIDMC lists the number of times such an event happened at the hospital within a quarter. Levy's discussion on the motivation and concerns surrounding such a public forum is insightful. The emphasis on reporting the raw number of harm events- and not obscuring them by reporting them as percentages of total patient population- shows a real understanding that patients are people whose lives are truly impacted by preventable errors.
It also sets up a clear standard of comparison; the goal is to have zero preventable events, and anything above zero signals continued room for improvement. What's the bottom line? Big thinking in a simple framework that patients, nurses, doctors and hospital administrators alike can use to chart progress and identify ways to change the status quo and improve patient safety.
The line from Levy's post that struck me the most is the quote used for the title of this post: "Don't think that you are more safe in a place just because they don't talk about their errors." I think this succinctly sums up an important aspect of patient safety today. For years, it was commonly assumed that there was an acceptable threshold for errors in medicine. Then came the realization that harm events could be prevented by analyzing and reworking broken systems. It's a huge change in philosophy, and the exciting part is that as patients and healthcare providers, we are all in the middle of a true zeitgeist shift. The language and tools to move medicine into a new, safer phase are right now being developed at a quick clip, and it will take some time and thought to figure out how we can best use these new resources to improve patient safety.
Surprising news about the incidence of harm events at one institution doesn't necessarily mean that a hospital isn't safe or actively trying to become safer; instead, it's a new way to bring healthcare providers and consumers on the same safety page.
Thanks,
Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, Disclosure
Condition H Networking
Every now and then, I get emails from people who are in the middle of implementing Condition H, and would like to talk with other healthcare professionals who have participated in a Condition H implementation.
For example, here are some good questions we recently received from Wisconsin:
1) What barriers, if any, did you experience from physicians and staff when implementing Condition H? How did you overcome them?
2) How do the nurses and medical staff react when the family or patient calls Condition H? Were there any feelings of guilt (i.e., "I failed the patient") or resentment? What resources are available for staff to debrief after a Condition H call?
3) How many calls do you get from patients or families per month? How many have been appropriate vs. inappropriate?
4) How willing were the physicians to do this? If there were any negative attitudes, how were they overcome?
5) If you have both staff-activated rapid response teams and patient- and family-activated rapid response teams, are the teams the same or do you have unique teams for both?
Are there any Condition H veterans out there who would be open to talking to colleagues in the early stages of implementation?
If you are interested, I encourage you to post below or email me at awesol@josieking.org to volunteer.
I will also set up a discussion page on our forum "Connecting with Others". Click
here to enter the forum.
Labels: by Andrea, Condition H
UPMC Releases Good News on Condition H
Good news from Pittsburgh.
UPMC is reporting results from the first two years of its implementation of Condition H, the patient- and family-activated rapid response team program that is gaining good traction in patient safety circles throughout the country.
From September 2005 to August 2007, there were 42 calls to Condition H. All of the calls were instigated by breakdowns in communication between caregivers and the patient or the patient's family. As the patient safety movement continues to make great strides and develop new techniques to prevent medical errors, it's clear that basic communication skills remain key resources for both caregivers and patients.
These and other successes are discussed in detail in the May/June 2008 issue of the Journal of Healthcare Quality.
As a Condition H partner, we at the Josie King Foundation are so proud of their success and hope that their impressive results inspire even more hospitals to implement Condition H. As a healthcare consumer, I'm relieved to know that more and more fellow patients have access to these rapid response teams.
Condition H consistently ranks among the top of the inquiries that we receive. It's encouraging to hear from so many institutions in varying stages of implementing patient- and family-activated rapid response teams of their own. For those of you who are associated with hospitals that have active programs, consider sharing any successes or lessons from your experience that could help your patient safety colleagues.
If you are in the early stages of planning, or are just considering starting a similar program at your institution, you can find helpful information on our website. Background material on Condition H is available
here. This page also contains program support materials developed by
UPMC for their program, like educational brochures and evaluation tools. These materials are all available for download, for you to learn from, amend and use at your institution. Big thanks to our friends at
UPMC for sharing their good work with the community.
Please send us your questions and share your stories by leaving a comment below or emailing me at awesol@josieking.org.
Thanks, and more soon,
Andrea
Labels: by Andrea, Condition H
JKF Blog 2.0
Summer! It's time for baseball and barbecues and vacations, but here at the Josie King Foundation it's also time to refresh our blog. We want www.josieking.org to be a continually useful resource for you, filled with new, helpful information and various ways to connect to the patient safety community. To better serve your needs, we've decided to add a second blogger to the mix.Â
This is where I enter the picture.
My name is Andrea Wesol, and I've been working with Sorrel and Tony for almost four years now. It's been a true pleasure to help them grow the Foundation and expand the scope of the work done in Josie's name. It's also been rewarding to communicate with you- the patients, families and medical professionals who write to us. I am most often the first point of human contact that most people have with the Josie King Foundation, and it's a role that I enjoy tremendously. I'll still be the one responding to your inquiries and ideas about the DVD of Sorrel's speech, Care Journals, Condition H, etc., so keep those emails coming. I do look forward to having the new medium of the blog to interact with you and generate public discussions about the patient safety topics that make this work so interesting.
Fear not- Sorrel will still be contributing to the JKF Blog. For you sports fans out there, think of me as the play by play announcer, and Sorrel as providing color commentary.
You can expect to find more frequent blog posts, so please bookmark this site and come back regularly to check out or contribute to the conversations. I encourage you to leave comments and questions about the blog after each entry, and you can always email me on any patient safety topic at awesol@josieking.org.
More soon,
Andrea
Labels: Blog, by Andrea
