Ask Berwick: What would happen if health care didn't shut down on weekends?

By IHI Open School | Wednesday, June 5, 2013

This week, Dr. Don Berwick answers a question from Cathy Ellis, PT, about the safety issues that arise from not having complete 24/7 health care: "How do you think outcomes would change if United States health care was provided seven days a week and not 'shut down' to a large extent on weekends?"

For the past eight weeks, Dr. Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at IHI and Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has answered a question each week in our blog series. We’ll feature one more question next week (will it be yours?) before taking a break for the summer. You can catch up on previous "Ask Berwick" Q&A's here.

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In his answer, Dr. Berwick discusses the work done by Eugene Litvak on optimizing health care. You can read more about Litvak's organization the Institute for Healthcare Optimization here, and check out his extensive catalog of publications here.

Make sure to check back next week for our final "Ask Berwick" before we take a break for the summer.

Do you have a question? Join the conversation and "Ask Berwick." Tweet @IHIOpenSchool using #AskBerwick, email openschool@ihi.org, or comment on Facebook.

Tags: Ask Berwick, Improvement, Quality Improvement, medical student, IHI Open School for Health Professions, Physician, Nurse, Intern/Resident/Junior Doctor, Don Berwick

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