Beth Israel Deaconess CEO Paul Levy explains why the medical center is buying a fancy-shmancy robotic surgical system even though it still has its doubts about the thing's clinical usefulness: Basically, all the other hospitals in the area - even some community hospitals - are buying one and BI is beginning to lose business:

... And, these factors are now spreading beyond urology into the field of gynecological surgery. So as a matter of good business planning, concern for the quality of our training program, and to continue to attract and retain the best possible doctors, the decision was made for us.

So there you have it. It is an illustrative story of the health care system in which we operate.

Beth Israel Deaconess CEO Paul Levy posts the memo he sent to hospital staff about the hospital's current finances.

Keith O'Brien at the Globe fills us in on what led up to the death of Kent Cambron, a once promising doctor whose body was found in a Beth Israel storage closet last month.

John Halamka, over at Beth Israel, will be posting his personal medical info and DNA details on the Web around 4 p.m. today:

As part of the PGP's first 10 participants, I contributed my entire medical record, phenotype, and genotype in the hope that this data will support research to enhance personalized medicine for future patients.

You can already read about his genetic history.

Location

The Globe reports the body of Dr. Brent Cambron was found today in an operating-room storage closet at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Officials suspect suicide by Cambron, who battled drug addiction and who was dismissed by the hospital in June, 2007; they are investigating how he gained access to what is supposed to be a secure part of the hospital.

In 2005, Cambron was one of three recipients of the chief resident's award at the hospital.

Cambron's LinkedIn page.

Paul Levy, CEO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is amused to read some know-it-all explain that CEOs should never blog because their time is too valuable to waste:

... [P]oor misled Mr. Brooks, thinking CEO time is precious. In fact, it is the least valuable time in an organization if things are working right. And, if things are not working right, it is even less valuable.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy posts the memo he sent hospitalwide following that incident in which doctors operated on the wrong side of a patient. Apparently, the team failed to do one last "time out" to ensure "right patient, right procedure, right side."

... What a horrifying story. What important lessons. We learned that when teams are busy and distracted, it makes it easier to overlook something. We learned that key safety steps, like the "time out," need to occur every single time, since even one failure can be serious. We learned that serious events rarely relate to the performance of any single person. We learned that we have vulnerabilities that we were not even aware of, and that there are surely others out there.

Actually, we re-learned all these things, because none of these observations are new and all of them apply to the entire work place. ...

But Levy adds that things went right following the mistake - the surgeon reported it immediately when he realized what had happened, hospital quality-care staffers began an immediate investigation, the surgeon and others apologized to the patient and senior medical staff agreed to inform the entire hospital about what had happened.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is an initial partner with Google on a GMail-like system designed to give consumers easy access to all their medical records - and background information on any conditions, drug interactions and the like (and also targeted ads?). Medical Center CIO John Halamka explains the system, including ways patient data will remain confidential.

Mark Baard, a Beth Israel patient, immediately signed up. Didn't work - his records didn't transfer over.

... I deleted my Google Health account after this failed experiment. I will eat my hat if the data have truly been deleted from Google's databases.

Any possible benefits to consumers from Google Health clearly outweigh the privacy risks at this point. ...

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy discusses a new initiative to dramatically reduce the number of medical mistakes at both its Longwood and Needham campuses - and says he'll post results over the next couple of years.

Six years ago, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was in such bad financial shape that state Attorney General Tom Reilly was pressuring the board of trustees to sell the whole thing to a for-profit company. Paul Levy posts a copy of the first memo he sent to medical-center doctors and employees when he took over six years ago this month - and adds:

... Tom and I had had a long-term mutually respectful and friendly relationship, and I had met with him the previous week and tried to persuade him to give me a short amount of time to turn things around. He agreed, saying, "Because you are personally willing to take this on, I am willing to give you a chance." (By the way, hearing that kind of sentiment from an AG is bit intimidating!) He placed strong and sensible demands on me and the Board to produce a plan, with strict financial milestones, and a commitment to regular reports on our progress. ...