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Lewis Blackman, a healthy 15-year-old boy, died in 2000 after an elective surgery. In this video, Helen Haskell, his mother, explains why communication isn’t always the norm after adverse events, and why this dynamic is changing. Says Haskell: “I think it is really important that health care providers, and particularly the upcoming generation, step up to the plate and say, ‘This is not going to happen anymore, not on our watch,’ because it soils the whole system. It makes it impossible to get better.” Learn more in PS 105: Responding to Adverse Events.
These days, health care systems are trying to cut costs by preventing unnecessary health care utilization. Conversations about this issue sometimes revolve around “non-compliant” patients, i.e., people who don’t follow medical advice or who use the emergency room for non-emergencies. In this piece, an IHI staff member describes how she became a “non-compliant” patient and offers some suggestions for what health care providers can do to improve the patient experience.
Each year, IHI offers a full ride to the IHI National Forum for one student whose quality improvement work shines in an essay competition. This year, Joyce Kim, a medical student at Emory University, won the prize with her work at a community health center in Atlanta, Georgia, that serves refugees and indigent people. Read her winning essay on the IHI Open School blog.
Lewis Blackman, a healthy 15-year-old boy, died in 2000 after an elective surgery. In 
Each year, IHI offers a full ride to the IHI National Forum for one student whose quality improvement work shines in an essay competition. This year, Joyce Kim, a medical student at Emory University, won the prize with her work at a community health center in Atlanta, Georgia, that serves refugees and indigent people. Read her winning essay on the 
