Tom Utecht, M.D., is responsible for maintaining high quality of care and patient safety at all Community’s hospitals. Dr. Utecht is an experienced emergency medicine physician and a faculty member for the UCSF Fresno Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
As we were transitioning from Hwy 168 onto Hwy 180, my eleven year old son asked an unusual question. "Dad," he asked, "have you ever killed anybody?" After a question or two to clarify, he meant exactly what I first thought when I heard the question - as a physician, had I made a mistake that contributed to the death of a patient? He was somewhat taken aback when I answered, "yes." I am guessing that many physicians and nurses can immediately think back to a case in which a different action or decision would have increased the odds of a patient surviving. I responded by asking him what he would do if this happened
. He stated, "I would explain to them what they did wrong and how not to do it again." This is what drives me - my goal is to add layers of safety/redundancy to our care processes so that clinicians don't have to answer the above question in the affirmative.
Comment Notification
If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here
Subscribe to this post's comments using
About tutecht
Tom Utecht, M.D., is responsible for maintaining high quality of care and patient safety at all Community’s hospitals. Dr. Utecht is an experienced emergency medicine physician and a faculty member for the UCSF Fresno Emergency Medicine Residency Program.