Donald Berwick

When we are concentrating on our daily work, we sometimes lose sight of the changes we've made over time. Think of how our world has changed in the 70 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and who could have imagined back then the changes that were already afoot? It's been just 15 years since we started labor management partnership at KP - and we may not yet grasp the profound changes we've made over time. The new 2011 People Pulse results tell part of the story.

Senior VP Barbara Grimm recently returned from an Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland. Among those she caught up with was Donald Berwick, MD, the former head of IHI who now leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It got Barb thinking about what his appointment means for Kaiser Permanente and the future of health care.

President Obama appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week.