Disclosing Adverse Events to Patients: International Norms and Trends.

Objectives: There is a growing expectation in health systems around the world that patients will be fully informed when adverse events occur. However, current disclosure practices often fall short of this expectation.

Methods: We reviewed trends in policy and practice in 5 countries with extensive experience with adverse event disclosure: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

Accreditation. Chassin and Joint Commission aim to inspire. Interview by Howard Larkin.

After two years at the helm of the Joint Commission, Mark Chassin, M.D., is pressing forward with efforts to turn the Joint Commission into a partner with hospitals and other providers and transform health care into a "high reliability" enterprise along the lines of the aviation and nuclear energy industries.

Making patient-centered care come alive: achieving full integration of the patient's perspective.

A patient-centered model of care has profound implications for the way that care is planned, delivered, and evaluated. Although most leaders in healthcare organizations today embrace the basic tenets of a patient-centered philosophy, they often find that moving toward a patient-centered model requires an unanticipated level of commitment and significant adjustments in organizational structures. In this article, the authors describe how patients and families have been integrated into the care delivery model by involving them in planning, decision-making, and improvement processes at all levels of the organization.