Profession

Trauma group founder honored

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 12, 2006

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The founder of a group devoted to offering support to patients and health professionals in the aftermath of adverse events was recognized for her work at the eighth annual NPSF Patient Safety Congress in San Francisco last month. The National Patient Safety Foundation, which organized the conference, awarded Linda K. Kenney its inaugural Socius Award for her work as executive director of Medically Induced Trauma Support Services. The 4-year-old nonprofit group operates a 24-hour support hotline, offers support sessions with a clinical psychologist and provides Web resources for victims of medical error.

In 1999, Kenney was due for ankle surgery but went into full cardiac arrest when nerve block was mistakenly delivered to her heart. She came away convinced of the need for better support systems for patients, families, physicians and other health professionals struggling emotionally in the wake of medical error. The Socius Award is taken from the Latin word for "partner" and is intended to honor patient-physician partnerships in patient safety. MITSS has so far partnered with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston as well as the Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety.

NPSF also awarded its Chairman's Medal to Doug Bonacum and Suzanne Graham, PhD, for leading the Kaiser Permanente integrated health system's efforts to improve health-care team communication and implement an automated medical record.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/06/12/prbf0612.htm.

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