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continued from page 1
thing is going to save lives, it’s not
always done,” Hibbard said.
Hibbard and the other panel
members are charged with devel
oping the National Quality Re
port, which will evaluate the
health care delivery system and
recommend measures to improve
the quality.
“There isn’t anything more im
portant than taking care of peo
ple,” said Michael Cook, a mem
ber of the forum’s board of
directors. “There is evidence that
there are breakdowns that could
be avoided.”
Although the panel is still map
ping out its study strategies, the
group has committed to complet
ing the report, mandated by Con
gress, by 2003.
The experts will examine the
effectiveness of hospital systems,
which are not always held ac
countable for incorrect proce
dures. As a possible solution, the
{ C There is evidence that
there are breakdowns
that could be avoided.
Michael Cook
Quality Forum
board member
panel will look at the successful
organization of the airline indus
try’s system. After crashes, airline
agencies immediately develop
safeguards to try to prevent the
same types of incidents again, Hi
bbard said.
“We need to develop systems
that find where the errors happen
and study them,” she said.
Additionally, the forum will try
to make the industry more consis
tent across the country. For exam
ple, Cook said effective medical
practices in Oregon should also
be used in South Carolina.
“We must find out how to con
vert existing knowledge that will
raise the performance at all lev
els,” Cook said.
Another goal of the forum is to
find a way to provide health insur
ance for more people. Approxi
mately 44 million people in the
United States are not medically in
sured, according*to the Institute of
Medicine, a supporter of the Na
tional Health Care Quality Forum.
“We’re not very good at provid
ing access to our population,”
said Hibbard, who received her
doctorate degree in 1982 from the
University of California at Berke
ley.
For the project, Hibbard is trav
eling to Washington, D.C., about
once every two weeks, an ex
hausting yet vital schedule to
keep.
“It’s complex but really impor
tant for people to understand at
least the broader issues,” Hibbard
said. “My hope is that people will
pay attention to this because a lot
of important decisions could be
made.”
Hibbard was selected for the
panel because of her work to help
the public better understand op
tions in health care.
“She’s done some really
ground-breaking research on how
to talk to consumers about (med
ical care) and the choices they
make,” Rother said. “She is really
the leader on how to communi
cate to consumers.”
As a whole, the panel includes
some of the finest health care ex
perts in the country, Rother said.
“All of the major stake holders
are on the board,” Hibbard said.
“The hope is that there is some
agreement on what to report to
consumers.”