After watching his father die in misery after being misdiagnosed and treated for the wrong cancer, Peter Pronovost decided patients deserved better. Pronovost?s work changed the way intensive-care patients are treated by emphasizing goals for improvement, the role of intensive-care specialists and teamwork among the surgeon, specialist and nurses. Today Pronovost directs the Center for Innovations in Quality Patient Care at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Have you encountered much resistance?
There?s always resistance, and it?s not always bad. People have abused the saying that everybody fears change. Tell that to the lottery winner. What they fear is loss: loss of control, of credibility. How much evidence do we need before we trump physician autonomy?
Don?t a lot of these safety measures seem like common sense?
It?s been almost 10 years since the Institute of Medicine wrote an article “To Err is Human” ? a basic strategy for reducing medical errors. The data suggest we?ve made limited progress to eliminate some of those errors.
What?s getting in the way?
Much of what?s being done is sloppy science. Researchers can say whatever they want in the conclusions, but these doctors are reading the research closely, and the data doesn?t always support the conclusions. If the director of a hospital is going to say, “You are going to switch to this type of soap and this hand-washing technique,” there has to be enough evidence that it will make a difference. When you?re truthful to the science, the battles melt away.”
