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Presents information as it relates to the role of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the strategies employed by the organization to establish grants. Background information on the foundation; Factors which should be considered when managing private foundations; Details on the decision making process of the foundation.

Opposes Daniel Yankelovich's view that lack of public deliberation is the cause of President Bill Clinton's health plan's failure. Consideration of underlying trends in health care reform; Public's disinterest in the health plan's tradeoffs; Need for proper timing and favorable political climate; Complexities of addressing the welfare reform issues; Benefits from poll surveys.

The authors present their views on patient safety in hospitals in the United States. They believe that a major problem is a lack of consensus on a specified list of safety initiatives hospitals should implement. Also noted is the fact that much of the controversy on the subject at the time of publication is caused by a report by the Institute of Medicine in 1999.

Focuses on the view of voters on the importance of health care in the U.S. Details of the survey conducted by the government which identifies important issues necessary for politicians to resolve and improve; Impact of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the value of health care; Accounts on issues concerning the cost of prescription drugs.

Purpose: Despite widespread public attention and numerous ongoing patient safety initiatives, physicians are skeptical of the most commonly prescribed interventions to reduce medical errors. This study examined the association between the published evidence of effectiveness of interventions to reduce medical errors and physicians' ratings of the effectiveness of those interventions. It further assessed whether academic affiliation was associated with physicians' ratings of effectiveness., Method: The authors conducted a literature review seeking evidence of effectiveness of 13 interventions to reduce medical errors. A four-page questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 1,332 U.S. physicians in the spring of 2002. A total of 831 (62%) responded, providing ratings of the perceived effectiveness of these interventions to reduce medical errors., Results: We identified published evidence of effectiveness for six of the 13 interventions. Physicians rated 34% of these and 29% of the interventions without published evidence as "very effective" (p < .01). Physicians with an academic affiliation and those in practice for more years were slightly more likely to rate interventions with published evidence as "very effective.", Conclusions: Physicians' ratings of the effectiveness of interventions to reduce medical errors are only weakly associated with published evidence of effectiveness. More evidence, better dissemination strategies for existing evidence such as inclusion in medical school curriculum or recertification examinations, and a focus on removing barriers to interventions may be needed to engage physicians in moving patient safety interventions into medical practice.