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Transparency leads to problems for Boston hospital

Quality Improvement Monitor, October 31, 2008

The president of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston has pledged that the Harvard teaching hospital will be transparent about medical errors, but the decision has caused some public relations headaches as well, the Boston Globe reports.

Paul Levy announced in January that the hospital would aim to eliminate all preventable harm to patients by 2012 and would publish quarterly progress reports. His blog has also been very candid about problems at the facility.

In June, the hospital fired a cosmetic surgeon after he appeared to be dozing off while performance a liposuction procedure. A few days later, a surgeon operated on the wrong ankle of a patient. Then this month, an anesthesiologist who had been terminated last year was found dead in a hospital closet, a possible suicide. And last week, a woman died during an emergency caesarean section.

Levy told the Globe he was confident that the bad publicity eventually will be overshadowed by improved patient safety and staff trust.

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