Journal of Sacred Work

Caregivers have superpowers! Radical Loving Care illuminates the divine truth that caregiving is not just a job. It is Sacred Work.

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Former President & CEO of multiple hospital systems and founding president & CEO of 20-hospital OhioHealth, best selling author, film artist, ordained minister, composer, published poet, syndicated T.V. host, trial attorney, federal prosecutor and Municipal Court Judge. Erie is internationally known as the founder of the Radical Loving Care(R)movement. He also heads Erie Chapman Foundation, Dane Dakota Productions, LLC, and Chapman Health International, Inc.

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Dr. Don Berwick’s Gift to You

June 15, 2006

The news announces that 122,300 lives have been saved in the past eighteen months. Was some great new vaccine discovered? Is there a cure for cancer? Has a great war come to a halt? The answer may well save your life or the life of someone you love. It’s an answer that came from a doctor who acted from love, not fear…

These lives have been saved through the leadership and initiative of one person. Years ago, a physician named Don Berwick had a bad experience in a hospital. More specifically, his wife had a series of bad experiences. Dr. Berwick, a prominent Harvard-affiliate physician, watched in horror as caregivers at one of America’s great hospitals made mistake after mistake in the care of his spouse.

Whether sophisticated enough to recognize it or not, many have experienced trouble at the hands of careless, overworked or undertrained caregivers. Yet who does anything about it other then, perhaps, make a solitary complaint or file a single lawsuit that changes almost nothing?

Dr. Berwick is different. To the benefit of hundreds of thousands, most of whom he will never meet, he launched a very special and powerful campaign. How could hospital-based mistakes be reduced?

First, he needed data to motivate change. This data was developed, demontrating to the shock of the country the astonishingly large number of preventable deaths from hospital-based errors including hospital-acquired, or nosocomial infections and medication errors.

Next, Dr. Berwick and his team developed a love-based initiative built around six criteria – from deploying rapid response teams for patients experiencing sudden change in vital signs to systems for reducing medication errors.

Being right, it turns out, even having the right systems isn’t enough. It takes persistence to make such a worthy campaign succeed. 3100 hospitals were enlisted to take part in the project. Eighteen months into the effort, the estimates emerged: 122,300 lives saved!

All of this because a physician who loved all patients enough to chose to do more than simply help improve his wife’s care. He chose to commit to improve treatment for ALL patients in ALL hospitals.

The Baptist Healing Trust wishes to pay tribute to a great American, a hero in the effort to improve loving care by strengthening safety. If your loved one has an error-free stay in American hospital, you might think of sending a thank you note to Don Berwick, M.D. – a person who has given a great gift to the America, and to the world of healing healthcare.

Posted in Health Care

5 responses to “Dr. Don Berwick’s Gift to You”

alisa & anthony shackelford

June 19, 2006

What a great affirmation on the loving aspect of healing that is too often overlooked or dismissed.
Bravo! Thank you for recognizing and sharing!
alisa & anthony shackelford
charleston, south carolina

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Sarah Kamniski

July 7, 2006

This past school year my sweet little first grade daughter Cammie was required to do a report on a famous American. I think it was during God and country week. We pulled several books from our shelf about famous women, and she was immediately drawn to Florence Nightingale, so we wrote the report, had a Florence outfit made, and practiced her oral report. Cammie informed me sometime during this process that her best friend, Sara, whose mother is nurse like myself, was also doing her report on Florence Nightingale. I thought it was pretty sweet that two best friends whose moms were both nurses had independently chosen to do their reports about a famous nurse. Was I ever embarrassed when a couple of days before the girls were to present their famous American reports, their teacher asked me if Florence Nightingale was an American! I called Sara’s mom, and we both had a good laugh at our failing to make the connection that because Florence was born in Italy, and raised in Europe, she wasn’t really a famous American. Miss Neal, the teacher, laughed at our oversight as well, and told us to have the girls mention the contributions Florence had made to American healthcare, and their reports would be fine.
As Cammie and I studied the life of Florence Nightingale, I was deeply moved and inspired. She was a great pioneer, and changed the world of healthcare because she cared and worked hard to make a difference. Here is the story of Florence Nightingale as told by Cammie. The title of her report is The Lady With The Lamp.
Florence Nightingale was born in Italy in 1820. She was very rich and smart. She was tired of going to dances and parties. When she was seventeen she wrote in her diary, “God spoke to me and called me to His service.” Florence visited the poor and gave them food, clothes, and medicine. She helped sick people and decided to be a nurse. But her parents were horrified! Hospitals were dirty and smelly and nurses were not very nice people. Finally they let her study to become a nurse. In 1854 Florence took a group of nurses to the Crimea to help take care of injured soldiers. The hospital was dirty and filled with fleas and rats. Florence and her nurses cleaned the hospitals and took care of the sick soldiers. Florence carried her lamp every night to check on the soldiers. That’s why they called her The Lady with the Lamp. Florence started a school for nurses, and wrote books to help hospitals and nurses. She helped America set up army hospitals for soldiers in the Civil War. Florence helped make hospitals clean, and nurses important. I wanted to do my report on Florence Nightingale because my mom is a nurse, and I like nurses.
When I graduated from nursing school in 1984, our class quoted the Florence Nightingale Pledge. I have part of that quote framed in my office to this day. It says, “…devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.” I know we nurses today live in a different world than Florence did, but if we will cling to this pledge, and let it be our “lamp,” as we care for the sick, we will make an important difference in their lives, and for all healthcare.
Florence Nightingale never heard of Erie Chapman’s book, Radical Loving Care, but she certainly modeled such a philosophy. Her lamp still shines brightly, and I believe those who practice radical loving care will help keep it shining.

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Stephanie Ras

May 30, 2017

thank you for this useful information

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Dorcas

June 28, 2017

How could hospital base be reduced? Another ready after operation a scapel blade was left inside. She had to be opened up for it to be removed. Another one after ear operation cotton wool was found deep inside the ear canal

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Joe

June 28, 2017

Large number of preventable deaths from hospital-based errors including hospital-acquired, or nosocomial infections and medication errors are very common especially in African and Asian countries

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