It has been twenty years since patient safety was thrust into the public and professional consciousness of healthcare. Despite the attention that has been given this complex topic in both the professional and lay press the progress towards making patient safety a real priority in healthcare has been limited. Transforming healthcare so that patient safety becomes an inherent property embedded in the very fabric of the organization requires the adoption of a variety of values, techniques, and processes that are continually  reinforced by the words and deeds of leadership at all levels. Critical elements and methods for achieving this goal will be discussed.

Dr. James P. Bagian is the Director of the Center for Healthcare Engineering and Patient Safety and is a Professor in the  Department of Anesthesiology in the Medical School and the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. Previously, he served as the first Director of the VA National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) and the first Chief Patient Safety Officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs from 1999 to 2010 where he developed numerous patient safety related tools and programs that have been adopted nationally and internationally. Dr. Bagian served as a NASA astronaut and is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions and was an investigator of both the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle mishaps. Presently, he is applying systems engineering approaches to the analysis of medical adverse events and the development and implementation of systems-based corrective actions that will enhance patient safety primarily through preventive means. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Drexel University and his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and has received numerous awards for his work in the field of patient safety and aerospace medicine.

1123 LBME is room 1123 in the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Biomedical Engineering Building (LBME). The street address is 1101 Beal Avenue. A map and directions are available at: http://www.bme.umich.edu/about/directions.php.

This seminar series is presented by the U-M Center for Healthcare Engineering and Patient Safety (CHEPS): Our mission is to improve the safety and quality of healthcare delivery through a multi-disciplinary, systems-engineering approach.

For additional information and to be added to the weekly e-mail for the series, please contact genehkim@umich.edu.

Photographs and video taken at this event may be used to promote CHEPS, College of Engineering, and the University.