Robert Wachter

Robert Wachter: Program Outlines

The Quality, Safety, and Value Movements: Why Transforming the Delivery of Healthcare is No Longer Elective
n this talk, I review the brief history of the quality and safety movements, the new push for “value” (quality + safety + patient satisfaction divided by cost), and how all of these levers (accreditation, regulation, transparency, payment changes) are combining to create unprecedented pressure on caregivers and delivery organizations to change their ways of doing business. Rather than being depressed, audiences leave with a deep understanding of healthcare’s new landscape, and a roadmap (and some optimism) for success in this new world.

What We Need to Know and Do to Cure our Epidemic of Medical Mistakes
A case-based, dramatic talk that describes a new way to think about medical errors. It is the Cliff Notes version of my bestselling books, Internal Bleeding and Understanding Patient Safety.The talk is suitable for novices, experts, and even lay audiences.

Patient Safety a Decade after the IOM Report on Medical Errors: Unmistakable Progress and Troubling Gaps
A more policy-oriented talk than #1; more appropriate for advanced audiences (ie, leaders in quality and safety). The talk chronicles what is and is not working (regulation, IT, reporting, accountability, etc.) in our efforts to prevent medical mistakes.

Use Your Words: Understanding the New Vocabulary of Healthcare Reform
Even though health reform passed in 2010, it will not have a major influence on the payment and delivery system for several years. Yet the 2009-10 debate introduced many new terms that will influence the debate regarding more comprehensive reform plans: “comparative effectiveness,” “bundling,” “accountable care organizations,” “Death Panels”….

In this talk, I help audiences make sense of these concepts, and, more importantly, what they mean in the larger context of our delivery system.

Consequences (Expected and Otherwise) of the Quality and Information Technology Revolutions
The talk is a slightly contrarian view of these trends, two of the most dominant issues facing health care today. Most talks on these issues are dry and pat; clinical audiences leave this talk thinking about these topics in a new, fresh way.

The Hospitalist Movement 15 Years Later: Key Issues for the Second Decade
I coined the term “hospitalist” in the NEJM in 1996. I cover the forces driving the growth of the field, the fastest growing specialty in the history of medicine, and what’s to come.

Other Talks:
In addition to the above talks, I can also speak on a variety of more specific topics in safety and quality (as keynote or plenary, or as a breakout), including:

• Quality Measurement, Reporting and P4P: Where Are We Going?
• Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch: The Role of Culture in Patient Safety
• Is There a Business Case to Invest in Quality and Patient Safety?
• Why Diagnostic Errors Get No Respect… And What Can Be Done To Fix That