MEDIA ADVISORY
November 30, 2016
Wine and Wisdom
True Auditorium at MedStar Washington Hospital Center
December 5, 2016 from 6:00-9:00 PM
"CANDOR: When Words & Actions Matter Most"
Medical error and patient harm will be center focus of the conversation next Monday, December 5, 2016, from 6 to 9 p.m., at Wine and Wisdom, an event hosted by a council of residents seeking to change hospital culture, encourage open reporting of adverse events and create system changes to prevent them.
National Patient Safety expert, Timothy McDonald, MD, JD, and director for the Center for Open and Honest Communication at the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety, will provide the keynote address, “CANDOR: When Words and Actions Matter Most.” Dr. McDonald helped pioneer a learner reporting process at the University of Illinois, which effectively engaged learners from all professions and all specialties in safety and quality education.
Several past and current Quality Improvement Patient Safety (QIPS) council members will be at the event, including Tammer Elmarsafi, DPM, a MedStar Georgetown University Hospital research fellow in Diabetic Limb Salvage at the Center for Wound Healing. Dr. Tammer said, “This is such an important topic for everyone on the clinical side. We do our best to help our patients but sometimes bad things happen, and this topic addresses how to deal with both family and care providers in those instances.” Adding, “Most people don’t have exposure to this.”
The QIPS council was formed to provide resident leaders opportunities for new strategies and tools to improve the quality of care of patients at hospitals in the Washington, D.C., region and beyond. The overall objective is to create a House Staff Council at multiple health care institutions and setup reporting mechanisms that can be shared across institutions and aim to achieve best practices.
Available for interview:
- Dave Mayer - vice president of Quality and Safety for MedStar Health. Dr. Mayer is responsible for overseeing the infrastructure for clinical quality and its operational efficiency for MedStar and each of its entities. Dr. Mayer also designs and directs system-wide activity for patient safety and risk reduction programs.
- Timothy McDonald, MD JD - Pediatric Anesthesiologist, Attorney, Author, and National Patient Safety Expert.
- Tammer Elmarsafi, DPM – Member of QIPS and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital research fellow (Diabetic Limb Salvage in the Center for Wound Healing)
- Shabnam Hafiz – Founding member of QIPS and MedStar Washington Hospital Center General Surgery Resident
About MedStar Health Graduate Medical Education
Advancing health through medical education, research and innovation is core to MedStar Health’s vision and strategy. Serving as MedStar Health’s medical education and clinical partner, Georgetown University enhances our “advancing health” portfolio through collaborations in teaching, scholarship and research. Georgetown University medical students rotate through MedStar’s hospitals for their clinical education and training. In addition, approximately 25 percent of the university’s graduating class is matched into MedStar residencies and fellowships. Most of MedStar’s teaching faculty hold academic appointments at Georgetown University, realizing the meaningful collaborations in teaching, research and academic service. For more information, visit MedStarAcademics.org.
About MedStar Health
MedStar Health is a not-for-profit health system dedicated to caring for people in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region, while advancing the practice of medicine through education, innovation and research. MedStar’s 30,000 associates, 6,000 affiliated physicians, 10 hospitals, ambulatory care and urgent care centers, and the MedStar Health Research Institute are recognized regionally and nationally for excellence in medical care. As the medical education and clinical partner of Georgetown University, MedStar trains more than 1,100 medical residents annually. MedStar Health’s patient-first philosophy combines care, compassion and clinical excellence with an emphasis on customer service. For more information, visit MedStarHealth.org.