By Michael W. Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
I was honored to be a guest on RT Sidebar, a place to facilitate dialogue regarding the respiratory therapist profession hosted by Vapotherm.
On the podcast, I talked about why I set up the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety and the key patient safety initiatives like the Enhanced Respiratory Care program. Here are highlights from that podcast:
Easy to Complain, Hard to Do
It is easy to complain about a problem. It is much harder to actually do something about it, as I explained on the podcast:
I think it’s really easy for folks and organizations to complain about something. It’s easy to complain, it’s hard, it’s really hard to do something about it. And so what we’ve tried to do is really focus on clinician education, teaching clinicians best practices, highlighting best practices, whether that be medications, equipment, whatever, and that’s what we try to do.
So we’ve been doing that in obviously opioids, which was our key first initiative, but then we got involved with blood clots, sepsis, and respiratory care. Every time we get involved with something new, it’s really because there’s someone within the organization that has been affected personally, and then I’ll say to them, you know, what can we do, and how can we make a positive change that’s going to matter?
You can make a positive change, by going to “Get Involved”.
Join the hundreds of volunteers and clinicians from around the world in supporting our mission to improve patient safety and the quality of patient care, by Getting Involved.
Save One Life
I discussed on the podcast that we have become a top-100 patient safety organization internationally by focusing on saving even just one life:
When I started the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health and Safety 14 years ago, I thought it’s only going to last six months. But 14 years later, we’re now ranked as a top 100 patient safety organization internationally …
As one of my board members reminds me, “Mike, if we can save one life, just one life, we would have done our job.
AI Can Never Replace the Human Eye
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic these days. On the podcast, I shared my thoughts on AI’s role in patient safety:
Nothing is ever going to replace a human’s eye … Nothing’s going to replace a mother, father, or whoever knows the patient really well saying, “You know what, he or she is not doing well.”
The Importance of the Enhanced Respiratory Care Program
I discussed on the podcast the uniqueness of the Enhanced Respiratory Care program:
The Enhanced Respiratory Care program”combines know-how, best practices, human knowledge, but also technology to create the best possible outcomes for patients.
To learn how your healthcare facility can become Enhanced Respiratory Care accredited, please click here.