It's been an eventful week for healthcare watchers. There were a number of noteworthy events, both good and bad. A large non-profit hospital chain, Catholic Healthcare West of San Francisco, announced a settlement in a class action suit over the rates it charges uninsured patients. Evidence--as if any were needed--that the litigation issue isn't going away any time soon. Earlier in the week, the American Medical Association held its annual meeting in Chicago and resolved to endorse the idea of a mandate for individual health insurance coverage. This is a fairly clear sign that we can all start taking the Massachusetts movement seriously.

Today there were further signs that database security may be one of the most important issues facing healthcare when it was revealed that the personal details of 80,000 doctors were stolen from a system belonging to the American College of Physicians by an unscrupulous marketer (see the story below).

But in the end, the good news seems to have outweighed the bad. On Wednesday, The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) announced that Don Berwick's 100,000 Lives Campaign has been a real success. More than 3,000 hospitals agreed to collaborate in the effort to reduce preventable deaths by implementing common sense quality improvement measures. According to the IHI, the initiative has saved an astonishing 122,300 lives. That should be an encouragement to us all and an indication of the kind of success that can be achieved if hospitals join forces. Well done, Don! Bravo!! - Matthew [1]