6 6 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E J U N E 2 0 1 5
J
oan Rivers arrived at Yorkville Endoscopy in
midtown Manhattan for what was supposed to
be a routine endoscopy. Hours later she slipped
into a coma and never recovered. The iconic come-
dienne's death put the quality of care provided at
outpatient facilities in the media's crosshairs, says
Kenneth Rothfield, MD, MBA, CPE, system vice
president and chief medical officer at Saint Vincent's
Healthcare in Jacksonville, Fla. He'll wrap up this
year's conference by discussing what went wrong on
that fateful day in his presentation "Lessons Learned
from the Death of Joan Rivers: Ensuring Patient
Safety in Outpatient Surgery."
• A wake-up call for surgical facilities. This incident has
increased media scrutiny on outpatient surgical
facilities. What has been the result of that attention?
For starters, it created uncertainty for patients. It's
very difficult from the patient perspective to assess
Lessons Learned From
The Death of Joan Rivers
The highly publicized incident
is a wake-up call for all facilities.
Speaker Profile
• Serves on the board of the
Physician-Patient Alliance for
Health & Safety.
• Nationally recognized for his
work in emergency airway man-
agement, opioid safety and respi-
ratory monitoring.
• Awarded the Circle of Honor
Award for Innovation in Patient
Safety from the Maryland Patient
Safety Center.
Kenneth Rothfield, MD, MBA, CPE
