Jeff Cooper, CMS’ Executive Director, was recently honored as a MGH HAVEN ( Helping Abuse and Violence End Now) Domestic Violence Unsung Hero.  Jeff has been an active member of MGH Men Against Abuse for many years. As noted by HAVEN, “His continuing dedication and willingness to get involved in the early days of the men’s effort to raise awareness and end domestic violence is greatly appreciated.” Congratualations to Jeff on receiving this award and for being involved in such a worthwhile group.

The HAVEN Program at MGH was officially launched in January of 1997. Its mission is to work as part of the broader movement to end intimate partner abuse by improving and enhancing our health care response to patients, employees, and community members who have been impacted by abuse. Click here to view Director Elizabeth  Speakman discussing HAVEN at MGH.

Last Thursday CMS had the honor of hosting Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger”.  Captain Sullenberger is the pilot who safely landed US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River in January, 2009 saving everyone on board after his aircraft hit a flock of birds knocking out both engines after takeoff. Captain Sullenberger, who retired from US Airways after thirty years of services in March, 2010, is a recognized expert on airline safety.  He’s  served as an instructor and as the Air Line Pilots Association Safety Chairman where his safety work led to the development of the Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circular. Captain Sullenberger was instrumental in developing and implementing the Crew Resource Management course that is used by US Airways.  Since 2007 he has run his own consulting firm, Safety Reliability Methods (SRM), Inc. which provides expert solutions to complex problems involving safety, high performance, and high reliability in the aviation industry. And, this past May he became the Aviaition and Safety Expert for CBS News. Captain Sullenberger is  interested in learning more about what can be done to improve safety in the healthcare sector and visited CMS  to see the cutting work we’re doing using simulation to help improve the quality and safety of care delivered to patients.

NPSF Congress – May 2011 

CMS’ Jeff Cooper led a stellar team of simulation experts in conducting an amazing Plenary session at the National Patient Safety Foundation annual congress on Friday, May 27 in Washington, DC.  Doug Bonacum, VP of Safety Management for Kaiser Permanente and co-chair of the NPSF meeting, did a quite memorable introduction of Jeff to the audience.  Haru Okuda led a “sim wars”-like onstage simulation with an Emergency Department team from the Washington Medical Center, Medstar Health.  The team managed the care of a patient who had chest pain while in the audience.  Robin Wootten was the patient’s simulation wife and got him up onto the onstage “Emergency Department”, where he became a mannequin, of course.  An error committed by confederate nurse Jared Kutsin led the team to have a disclosure discussion with the family, accompanied by a (confederate) patient safety officer, who was in the audience.  Paul Preston and Connie Lopez led the debriefing of the disclosure.  Jeff ended the session with an overview of the scope and purposes of simulation.  The session was a powerful learning experience about simulation and especially its use for practice in disclosing adverse events.

Introduction of Jeff Cooper, NPSF Congress – May 2011 

All of us here at CMS know how remarkable a person and leader Jeff is, so it’s great when we hear that others feel the same way.  The following is the introduction to the audience at the NPSF’s Plenary Session  given by Doug Bonacum, VP of Safety Management for Kaiser Permanente and co-chair of the meeting: (more…)

 Jeff Cooper, Executive Director of CMS. was recently interviewed  for the  ANZCA Bulletin (Austalian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists). The first installment of  the interview entitled, ”A Life in Patient Safety: A conversation with Professor Jeff Cooper”, appeared in the June 2010 edition of the Bulletin. In this part, Dr. Cooper discusses his background and how he became involved in patient safety.  In the second part, which will appear in the September edition,  Dr. Cooper talks about the achievements in patient safety made so far, and outlines his thoughts on the work that still needs to be done. The interview was conducted by Dr Cate McIntosh, Director of Simulation at the Hunter New England Skills and Simulation Centre, and Consultant Anaesthetist in the Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle Australia.

The first installment of the interview appears below: