Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety

The Betsy Lehman Center’s peer support team is hosting a virtual session with Daniel Saddawi-Konefka, M.D., anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-founder of The Emotional PPE Project

Dr. Saddawi-Konefka will examine why many clinicians delay or avoid seeking support and discuss practical approaches organizations can use to reduce stigma and improve access to peer and professional support.

Date and time: June 16, 2026 | 12 – 1 PM
Location: Virtual

Register here: https://buff.ly/NicCDAv

The Support Report is the Betsy Lehman Center’s email newsletter with featured stories and resources aimed at strengthening peer support across Massachusetts.

In the latest issue, read about how Care Dimensions is partnering with the Virtual Peer Support Network, see upcoming events and training, and access featured literature from our peer support research library.

Read the full newsletter here: https://buff.ly/DGeXszu

Care Dimensions is the first hospice and palliative care organization to partner with the Virtual Peer Support Network. By investing in peer support, Care Dimensions is helping ensure their clinicians and staff have meaningful resources to connect, reflect, and care for one another.

Read more about how they’re building a culture of support: https://buff.ly/86HEiPC

The Betsy Lehman Center was pleased to join the recent Massachusetts Association of Healthy Plans Policy Forum to talk about our pilot of Automated Adverse Event Monitoring – a technology-enabled approach to reducing preventable patient harm and driving down health care costs.

Experts from the Betsy Lehman Center, Pascal Metrics Inc., and the Office of the Inspector General talked about the need for timely, reliable statewide patient safety data. Senator Paul Feeney, Representative Meghan Kilcoyne, patient advocate Michelle Anderson and Dana Siegal from Coverys discussed the impact on patients and families across the Commonwealth, and the opportunity for our state’s hospitals to lead on health care safety.

With nearly 180,000 patient harm events annually in Massachusetts, this approach could prevent thousands of incidents and save hundreds of millions in health care costs.

Read more in State HouseNews Service: https://buff.ly/hM90bjm

State pursuing tool to catch hospital errors before they become costly A new endeavor to better track patient safety issues and overlooked medical errors at Massachusetts hospitals could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in savings, including for MassHealth that

Birth doulas play an important role in supporting parents and improving maternal health outcomes. In 2022, the Betsy Lehman Center released a report on the impact of doulas that helped inform the state’s decision to cover doula support services under MassHealth.

Now, Massachusetts is developing a certification process that could pave the way for more private insurers to begin covering doula services, too – helping to expand access and reduce maternal health disparities statewide.

Learn more about the certification process that launches this spring: https://buff.ly/GNYxR9s

And read the Center’s report: https://buff.ly/VQoAR61

Registration is now open for the Betsy Lehman Center’s 12th Annual CARe Forum.

This year’s forum will feature presentations, case simulations, and panel discussions focused on communication and resolution programs. The program includes a keynote address by Leilani Schweitzer, Founder of Comms Corps and co‑creator of the Certified Medical Harm Communicator (CMHC) training, on building systems grounded in compassion and care after harm. The agenda also includes expert‑led discussions on navigating uncertainty and learning following adverse events.

Date: Friday, May 29, 2026 | 9:30 a.m.
Location: 501 Boylston Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA (in person) or Zoom (virtual)

Register to attend in person or online:
https://buff.ly/40z5RQI

Registration is now open for the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety’s 12th Annual CARe Forum.

This year’s forum will feature presentations, case simulations, and panel discussions about communication and resolution programs. The program includes a keynote on building systems for compassion and care, as well as expert‑led discussions on navigating uncertainty and learning after harm events.

Event details:

Date: Friday, May 29, 2026 | 9:30 AM

Location: 501 Boylston Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02116 (in person) or Zoom (virtual)

Register to attend in person or online: https://buff.ly/Ms9SYIa

ECRI ’s Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2026 outlines the most important patient safety challenges predicted to impact the health care industry this year. This year’s list emphasizes risks that span technology, infrastructure, staffing, culture, and public health—issues capable of affecting large numbers of patients and driving preventable harm.

Read the report: https://buff.ly/SzoMSVS

The Betsy Lehman Center’s first annual report on the impact of Patient and Family Advisory Councils in Massachusetts is now available! The report is a significant step in the Center’s work to reinvigorate the statewide PFAC program and engage patients and families in health care safety.

Read about common themes, challenges and accomplishments in the 2025 report: https://buff.ly/YAesNOe

Electrical outages, fires, extreme weather and other emergencies can have devastating impacts on skilled nursing facilities.

A free webinar hosted by the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Executive Office of Aging & Independence, and the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety will support leadership teams and clinical managers in skilled nursing facilities as they strengthen emergency preparedness, with a special focus on sheltering in place and evacuation.

The webinar will highlight practical approaches, real-world insights, and resources available to skilled nursing facilities across the Commonwealth. It will feature presentations by managers and leaders who recently have managed emergencies in their own facilities.

Date: Tuesday, February 10
Time: 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Register here: https://buff.ly/6urS6qa