Obama to Nominate Professor for Medicare Post

[steven johnson]

Source: Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama plans to nominate Donald Berwick, a Harvard professor and specialist in patient safety, to lead the agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid, according to two administration officials.

The top post at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will be one of the most critical to implementing the president's health overhaul that became law this past week. The post has been vacant for more than three years.

Dr. Berwick runs the Boston-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement and is a pediatrics and health policy professor at Harvard University. His focus has been to improve patient safety by applying more systemized procedures to the medical field. He has also worked as an executive at a Massachusetts health maintenance organization.

In 2005, he was appointed honorary knight commander of the British Empire by the queen of England for his work with the British National Health Service, according to a biography on his center's Web site.




Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303737704575148503748287716.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[truthisfreedom]

1. I love the sound of rethug heads exploding in the morning.

Smells like victory. Just wait till they start screaming "Elitist!!!"

[Tx4obama]

2. The post has been vacant for more than three years. // ??? No wonder there is so much fraud! n/t

[mucifer]

3. I looked stuff up on him on the web he seems to be a great choice .

[nyy1998]

4. Wouldn't that mean he'd be called Sir Donald Berwick?

[WinkyDink]

5. In the UK, yes. We stopped that ca. 1776 (except for born-Brits, out of respect).

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Strict protocol is not to prefix 'Sir' for honorary knights, either

although it's sometimes done in a jokey way (eg 'Sir Bob Geldof'). Here's the posh guide on the correct form:

When a foreign national receives an honorary knighthood of an Order of Chivalry, he is not entitled to prefix 'Sir' before his name, but he may place the appropriate letters after his name, eg Bob Geldof, KBE.

Should he become a naturalised British subject he will be entitled to receive the accolade. Having become a full knight of the appropriate Order, he will then use 'Sir' before his name.

http://www.debretts.com/forms-of-address/titles/knight/honorary-knight.aspx

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Recess appoint this guy NOW!! n/t