Thank you for your interest in the work of HONOReform – the only organization dedicated to advancing injection safety. I am asking today for your support of our life-saving work.
Why do we advocate for injection safety?
You will be interested in this story about what happened in my family practice clinic recently that illustrates why we must – together – continue educating healthcare providers and patients about the critical need for injection safety.
My clinic scheduled an assessment by the CDC Nebraska Infection Control Assessment program team. These hard-working nurses and infection preventionists spent a day assessing our clinic’s policies and procedures, making sure that we are doing everything we can to prevent our patients from contracting disease while in our office.
At the end of the day, the assessment team sat down with us to give us their report. Fortunately, we are doing most things right.
But there was one thing that needed improvement. The team found an opened, unlabeled vial of lidocaine in a patient care area. Since the vial had not been disposed of properly, there was a risk that it could be reused improperly, potentially spreading disease.
How do we advance injection safety?
You probaby know that my wife contracted Hepatitis C through unsafe injection practices sixteen years ago. Since then, it is my personal crusade to educate about injection safety. I preach to doctors, nurses and medical students that it is never okay to reuse syringes, needles, medication vials or other medical equipment intended for one time use. But despite my efforts, an unsafe injection could have taken place, even in my own office. In 2016, HONOReform gave educational presentations to 2208 people as well as reaching thousands through social media and virtual audiences. Everyone who has been touched by the retelling of our story joins me in thanking you for your generous partnership and support. We are committed to educating about and advocating for injection safety with every possible opportunity, to keep you and your family safe when you access healthcare.
But even with all our efforts to educate about injection safety, there were eight outbreak investigations of disease transmission through unsafe injection practices in 2016, affecting thousands of Americans! Together we must work even harder to advance injection safety.
Here is how you can spread the word about injection safety
Talk to your healthcare providers about how they are keeping you safe through careful adherence to injection safety guidelines. Pass along HONOReform’s eagerness to provider a quality educational presentation to their professional organization. Here is a useful link: HONOReform’s educational presentation program.
Today I am asking for your support for HONOReform. Your contributions enable HONOReform to educate about the absoulte necessity of injection safety to keep healthcare safe for thousands. Click this “Help Save Lives” link to reach our website to make your gift.
Thank you for your consideration. I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely yours,
Thomas A. McKnight, MD
HONOReform Foundation
PS Thanks for helping with this important need. Please donate today to help with our educational efforts.
The Healthcare Learning Activitity Grant Program provides a quality continuing education presentation at low or no cost. HONOReform will provide a grant to organizations sponsoring
continuing education activities for healthcare professionals or consumer-focused activities.
Attendees will receive a flash drive containing the PowerPoint presentation, resources for injection safety, and the award-winning book: A Never Event: Exposing the Largest OUtbreak of Hepatitis C in American Healthcare History.
Description of Offered Programs
Healthcare providers in all types of settings have reviewed and followed safe injection best practices. Nonetheless, the “unthinkable” still happens, with significant impact on the patient and providers. The CDC estimates that there have been more than 50 outbreaks of Hepatitis C and/or Hepatitis B in the past decade due to reused needles, syringes or medication vials. Evelyn and Tom McKnight, founders of HONOReform, will share their own compelling story of infection attributed to reuse of syringes in a medical setting. Additionally, the McKnights will examine factors contributing to the outbreak and make recommendations for prevention.
1. “A Never Event – Don’t let it Happen in your Facility!”
A survivor describes a Nebraska “Never Event” in which 99 patients contracted Hepatitis C when a nurse reused syringes during chemotherapy administration. Root causes of the outbreak are examined as well as resources for prevention.
2. “Preventing Healthcare Transmission of Disease through injection Safety”
This presentation examines causes of patient-to-patient, patient-to-provider and provider-to-patient transmission of disease and offers resources for prevention.
3. “Injection Safety in Dental Practice”
Since 2012 thousands of patients have been put at significant risk of acquiring infectious disease from dental practices in four states. In one instance, the Colorado Department of Health notified 8000 patients that they were at risk for contracting Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV because their dentist’s practice reused needles and syringes. The McKnights will examine factors contributing to the outbreak and make recommendations for prevention in dental offices.
4. “Becoming an Empowered Patient”
Patients are learning that to receive the best quality healthcare, they need to effectively partner with their healthcare provider. A physician and a survivor of medical error discuss their own personal experiences of patient empowerment and ways to improve the physician-patient partnership.
It is my honor to highly recommend Dr. Evelyn V. McKnight as a speaker. I can think of no one better to present this information. Without a doubt, she exemplifies the motivation and goal-directed approach, in concert with the knowledge and passion to deliver this complex issue.Wanda O. Wilson, PHD MSN, CRNA, Executive Director, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
Evelyn tells her story with compassion and purpose with the intention to educate listeners about the egregious unsafe practices that continue unabated in healthcare practice sites. I enthusiastically recommend Evelyn McKnight to any group seeking to educate and inspire its members! Janice M. O’Dowd, Certified Continuing Medical Education Professional, Kent Hospital, Warwick, Rhode Island
The McKnights put together an extensive slide show presentation, with multiple resources for further education. They provided tools for healthcare providers to use in their jobs to help educate other providers and present healthcare associated infections. … If you are looking for an engaging educational presentation for your next healthcare conference, I would recommend Tom and Evelyn McKnight. They were very well received, and did a wonderful job. Michele Maryanski, RN CIC, APIC New England Program Director
Our feedback following this course was absolutely outstanding! We hope that Evelyn will continue to educate the public and bring more awareness on safe injection practices so an event like this never happens again. Melissa Adams, Continuing Education Director, AZ Perio Dental Hygiene Study Club
Dr Tom McKnight is a co-founder of HONOReform and a family physician in Fremont, NE
Dr Tom McKnight was recently awarded the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Koefoot Award for outstanding teaching and mentoring of medical students during the family medicine rural preceptorship. Following are some excerpts from Dr McKnight’s acceptance speech.
Thank you, Koefoot family and the department of family medicine. I am humbled and honored by this award. I know that there are many deserving family physicians in our state that mentor students in outstanding, compassionate care on a daily basis. I read a quote by Gretchen about her father. She said, “Medicine was his life and his love. He devoted all of his time and energy to his practice in Broken Bow.” I hope my own sons will likewise admire the way I have conducted my practice.
I chose to go into family medicine because it provides the opportunity to be involved in peoples’ lives from birth to death. I’ve enjoyed the family medicine experience because of the broad range of challenges emotionally and intellectually whenever I step into an exam room. In my daily routine I often celebrate with new parents when they bring their baby to the doctor for the first time and then go to the next exam room to break the news to a married couple that the husband has terminal lung cancer and has only a few months to live. I have to say family medicine is as challenging and exciting now as it was 35 years ago when I started my practice. Sharing these challenges and rewards with students has made my day to day work life so much richer.
When I was first asked to mentor students early in my career, I quickly agreed. I remembered fondly the time I had spent in Lynch, NE with Dr Becker on my family practice rotation, and I was anxious to provide that stimulating experience for others. At the time that I first accepted students, I was hardly older than the students. I was 28 when I started my private practice. I think back on that now, and am glad I was too naive to realize the big responsibility that I was undertaking. My parents were both teachers, and I think because they made teaching look easy, I thought it would be easy for me, too. I quickly came to a deep appreciation for how challenging teaching is, and gained a deep appreciation for how my parents had shaped so many lives in profoundly productive ways.
Being involved with medical students throughout my career has been extremely rewarding. It is a source of continued stimulation and motivation for keeping up with the advancements of medicine. Sharing the joy with a student of their first delivery or the satisfaction of suturing their first laceration gives me a warm feeling. Its interesting to show them private practice medicine and what it is like to be involved in a community. I love following their educational and career advancement and then have them as specialty consultants. Many of the more than one hundred students I have mentored over my career have become my lifelong friends.
One big challenge to family physicians of my generation was the implementation of electronic medical records. Medical students have played a key role in my education about digital records and have made the transition seamless. Not only have they helped me learn how to keep digital records, they taught me how to access valid information on the web and how to fulfill ongoing family practice continuing education on the internet. And – they also showed me the best apps for Nebraska football stats!
My family has shared the experience of precepting students with me. Evelyn has been a gracious host to the many students who have joined our supper table and who have lived with us throughout their rotation. When our sons were young, I could see how they started thinking about medicine as a career through watching students, which is a different way of seeing medicine than in watching Dad. I was privileged to mentor all three sons during their medical education. It was marvelous to see their compassion and care of patients during their family medicine rotations. It gave them an understanding of what my career is. I’m honored that they have chosen medicine for their own career paths and that they, in turn, mentor students. It’s rewarding and sometimes humorous to talk to them about their own patients. I got a phone call from Curtis the psychiatrist recently, asking me how to treat constipation!
My staff takes great interest in the education of the students. This has become even more important in the era of digital medical records because the first few days of a rotation is spent with staff as the student learns our office based system. Staff gets attached to the students and is sad to see them go when they leave, but are delighted to see their progress as compassionate physicians. Staff often spends more time with patients than I do, which teaches the students the value of teamwork in patient care.
The patient doctor relationship is special. I am privileged to care for 4 generations of families. I am so humbled that they have placed their trust in me, many for 3 decades.
Our patients are always very interested in students. They want them to learn well; they want them to do well. They want them to become exceptional Nebraska family physicians. I see how disappointed the patients are when they come to the office expecting to see their favorite student, only to learn that she has moved on. Patients still ask me about students, years after they have graduated. This is especially true when the student was involved in a family crisis or a family joy such as a birth or a triumph over a serious disease.
You wouldn’t think that something as serious as teaching young people how to be good doctors would provide opportunities for laughter, but the truth is, something funny happens nearly every day. Here are some examples:
We’ve had students (more than one) put a cast on the wrong arm. Or put a blue cast on a little bitty girl dressed in pink who is sobbing. The student thinks she is crying because her arm hurts, but in actuality, she is crying because she wanted a pink cast!
Fremont Health Center is not a big place, but we had a student who could not remember where to park, even after being shown numerous times. In the last week of the rotation, the security guards were threatening to tow.
One time, after a student had completed his first pap smear, the staff member moved the provider’s stool out of the way. The student wasn’t aware that the stool had been moved, and plopped down on the floor!
I asked a student to put a UNA boot on a patient’s foot. When I came into the exam room, there was a blue shoe bootie on the injured foot!
I’m generally a patient man, but sometimes the time it takes some new students to do their first suture repair in interminable. I try to encourage the student to speed things up a bit without worrying the patient by making the comment “The fibroblasts are restless.” Not always does the student crack the code, and I often get a puzzled look from both the student and the patient.
I appreciate the cultural diversity that students bring to our practice. Last fall I had the pleasure of introducing a Chinese student to Nebraska football. Seeing the pageantry of the Red Sea in Memorial Stadium through someone else’s eyes made the experience so much richer for me.
I’ve enjoyed opportunities to serve in ways other than office medicine. I’ve shared with students about our service trips to third world countries, membership on nonprofit boards, medical staff offices and our own patient safety foundation HONOReform. I hope that all of my students will find service opportunities in their careers that have been as fulfilling to them as mine have been to me.
Our own experience with medical error and the work of HONOReform has made me a better doctor because I understand both the doctor and the patient side of the relationship. I’ve learned how to accept responsibility and do the right thing, even when that is a very difficult thing to do. I try to pass these lessons on to the students. From the first day of a rotation, the student hears our story, and throughout our time together, I try to model transparency and ethical behavior in every patient encounter. I want them to become less defensive, more compassionate, and more grateful for this wonderful career as the years go by.
For all of these many gratifying experiences, I thank the students who have spent precious months of their four years of medical school with me. I thank the department of Family Practice for their confidence in me. I thank the Koefoot family for recognizing and supporting rural family physicians in Nebraska. Our work is not done, and I am eager to continue to mentor the next generation of family physicians.
Lexington Insurance recently invited Tom and Evelyn McKnight to speak to Risk Management on injection safety
Tom and Evelyn McKnight were recently sponsored by Lexington Insurance to speak to hospital risk management on injection safety in Honolulu. While there, they learned about public health threats to the native Hawaiians through disease before antibiotics. Here are some of Tom’s thoughts about the importance of injection safety when delivering antibiotics.
Antibiotics and Injection Safety
Following is a written transcription of the video:
Aloha!
And welcome to the beautiful state of HI.
I’m tom mcknight and i’m a family physician. With my wife Evelyn, I am a co-founder of the organization HONOReform.
We have been invited to the state of Hawaii by AIG to speak to risk managers about injection safety.
As you might remember, the early days of the Hawaii were fraught with many diseases, many of which were brought by western civilization. Chicken pox, measles and even Hansen’s disease had a devastating effect on society. With the advent of antibiotics and injections in 1940’s and 1950’s, their health has become much safer.
But every injection needs to be a safe one. So our organization is promoting safe injection practices, because every injection needs to be handled and distributed properly.
So join with us and all of our co-sponsors in promoting needle injection safety.
Tom McKnight reflects on 33 years of family practice
Tom McKnight recently was named the Nebraska Family Physician of the Year at the Nebraska State Capitol
It is a pleasure to announce that Dr. Thomas A. McKnight—Tom—a founding member of HONOReform and our medical director, was honored by Governor Dave Heineman on October 8, 2014. In a special proclamation, Tom was named “2014 Family Physician of the Year” in Nebraska. We are grateful for Tom’s ongoing leadership and guidance.
He is pictured with Representative Jeff Fortenberry and Governor Dave Heineman. The text of his talk is included here.
Thank you Gov Heineman, Representative Heineman, and the NE Academy of Family Physicians. I am humbled and honored by this award. I know that there are many deserving family physicians in our state that provide outstanding, compassionate care on a daily basis to Nebraska families.
I chose to go into family medicine because it provides the opportunity to be involved in peoples’ lives from birth to death. I’ve enjoyed family medicine because of the broad range of challenges emotionally and intellectually that each patient encounter brings. In my daily routine I often celebrate with new parents when they bring their baby to the doctor for the first time and then go to the next exam room to break the news to a married couple that the husband has terminal lung cancer and has only a few months to live. I have to say family medicine is as challenging and exciting now as it was 33 years ago when I started my practice.
After finishing medical school at UNMC i did my residency in Cedar Rapids, IA. I took a temporary position in the ER while we were waiting the birth of Luke. This gave me a chance to see a different side of medicine. It taught me that i wanted to develop long term relationships with patients and that i would only be fulfilled in having my own practice.
We volunteered for 6 months in various Native American Health Centers in NM, MT and AK before we settled in our new home in Fremont. This time period also allowed me to get licensure and staffing in place to open my solo practice in July, 1981. I still remember how happy but anxious i was to see my very first patient with brand new staff. Evelyn and I wonder if it was bravery or foolishness to have a new baby, buy a house, start a brand new practice with no patient base, all with no other income. It worked out. Fremont has been very supportive of us and it has been a marvelous place to practice medicine and raise a family.
The loyalty of my staff is unmatched. In the 33 years of practice 2 employees have been with me from the beginning, 6 have been with me 25 years or more and 9 have been with me for more than 10 years. We have 5 families who have two generations that serve patients with me. With all the stresses and changes in medicine, I think this is remarkable. It shows their dedication to caring for their friends and neighbors in Fremont. Their dedication goes beyond the time they spend at the office. They attend patients’ weddings and funerals, give baby showers for needy patients and organize fundraisers to help with patient’s medical bills. Most importantly they hold patients’ hands when they need a compassionate listener, share in the joy of a new baby and shed tears in the loss of a loved one. Patients know their dedication and i think that often they would rather see their favorite staff member than me. The same devotion the staff shows to our patients they extend to me and my family. They do their best to make my day run as smoothly as possible and that is not easy, given how many emergencies come up in one day. In the years of illness within my own family, they sent supper home with me every day for a year. They took our kids to their activities and hugged me through the time of my mother’s death. We will never forget your kindness and compassion.
The most important part of this journey is my family. They were patient and understanding when i was called from family life to attend to others’ needs. I was privileged to mentor all three sons during their medical education. It was marvelous to see their compassion and care of patients during their family medicine rotations. It gave them an understanding of my career. I’m honored that they have chosen medicine for their own career paths. Its rewarding and sometimes humorous to talk to them about their own patients. I got a phone call from Curtis the psychiatrist recently, asking me how to treat constipation!
The most important person here is Evelyn. She has stood by my side, been the most trusted confidante and understanding partner that i could have. She was the mother, often the father when i wasn’t able to be part of family life. She waited patiently for me many late nights to share the joys and sorrows of my day. I know how difficult it is and she continues to offer her support and love. I am eternally grateful.
Being involved with medical students throughout my career has been extremely rewarding. It is a source of continued stimulation and keeping up with the advancements of medicine. Sharing the joy of their first delivery or the satisfaction of suturing their first laceration gives me a warm feeling. Its interesting to show them private practice medicine and what it is like to be involved in a community. I love following their educational and career advancement and then have them as specialty consultants.
The patient doctor relationship is special. I am privileged to care for 4 generations of families. I am so humbled that they have placed their trust in me, many for 3 decades. We’ve gotten to know each other well and i feel like a part of their lives. They are a part of mine as well; they ask about my family and send me gifts and articles that they know i would like. This is really what family practice is about – caring for families through generations. It is a blessed coincidence that the first baby I delivered in Fremont in 1981 was JoAnne’s baby girl named Christine. I delivered Christine’s baby girl Caitlyn in 2011, the last baby I delivered.
Many things have changed in medicine in the years of my career. Immunizations now prevent many diseases that were devastating to families when i first started practice. I remember many nights interrupted by trips to the ER where i did spinal taps on children, looking for meningitis, which is now very uncommon with meningococus vaccine. We now have genomics to assist with cancer care and cardiovascular disease. We used to have to get hard copy medical journals to research new developments but now i can consult Medscape on my smartphone. Computerized medical records are replacing cumbersome paper charts and will allow patients to have their medical records anywhere in the world. Patients have changed also, for the better. They are more involved and knowledgeable about treatment options. They are full partners in their healthcare, which is better for them and healthcare providers. Patients know their bodies better than anyone and bringing this knowledge to the partnership makes for better health. We need to embrace these changes in technology and patient partnership.
I’ve enjoyed opportunities to serve in ways other than office medicine. Service trips to third world countries, membership on nonprofit boards, medical staff offices and our own patient safety foundation HONOReform has promoted my own personal growth. We have met so many wonderful, committed people in these endeavors. Their dedication inspires me.
Our own experience with medical error and the work of HONOReform has made me a better doctor because i understand both the doctor and the patient side of the relationship. I’m less defensive, more compassionate, and more grateful than i used to be. I’ve learned how to accept responsibility and do the right thing, even when that is a very difficult thing to do. To say “I’m sorry, this is not what i wanted for you” when my care of a patient did not turn out as planned is the right thing to do.
HONOReform is a national organization, and we stay very active here in Nebraska. If I could wish one thing for our state, it would be the adoption of a bill that emphasizes safe injection practices. We have seen many lives here in Nebraska (and throughout the country) altered or ended because of lack of adherence to injection safety. HONOReform is willing to roll up our sleeves and work with Nebraska lawmakers to put an injection safety bill in place. We believe this legislation is overdue.
For all of this, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Our work is not done, we are eager to see what the next 33 years will bring.
The many “Love Stories” that have been altered by unsafe injection practices
Evelyn & Tom McKnight are survivors of the Nebraska Outbreak
On behalf of my wife Evelyn and everyone who helps sustain the efforts of HONOReform, thank you very much for your support. In the letter I sent in November, I ask the wonderful people we have met and worked alongside through the years to provide a donation to HONOReform. This request is getting a good response. I thank you all.
And, naturally, I encourage everyone to please think of HONOReform here at the end of the year…and throughout 2014 and beyond. We depend on your kindness and generosity. Every donation is meaningful. You are helping us continue to help safeguard the medical injection process in the United States. If you haven’t already, will you please consider a gift to HONOReform?
In a blog post scheduled for early next year, our executive director, Steve Langan, will share some of our highlights of 2013—and some of our goals for 2014. We encourage you to join us!
In my appeal letter we mailed in November, I shared part of my story, our story—what can happen when a loved one is affected by unsafe injection practices. Even one unsafe injection can devastate a person and his or her family. Every part of the injection safety process “from manufacting through disposal” (as Evelyn says) must be done correctly.
I talk about the many “love stories” that have been altered by unsafe injection practices. I have been there. Many others have been there, too. Let’s continue to work to prevent outbreaks and infections caused by unsafe injection practices.
I would like to switch gears for a minute, and talk to you about injection safety from the point of view of health care providers. As many of you know, I have been a family physician for many years. It is not a stretch to say, at this point in my career, “I’ve seen it all.”
I call on my colleagues—not just physicians but nurses and every member of the staff in a clinic or hospital—to always provide a safe injection, each and every time. This continues to be my goal. A call to action to everyone who gives an injection…to make sure it’s being done correctly.
That said, it is now more important than ever that we communicate. There is so much technology in play in hospitals and clinics—from electronic medical records to apps of all kinds—that I think we providers sometimes forget to take some time to talk with one another.
My wish for 2014 is that we emphasize communication here in Fremont at our clinic. And that we are never shy or hesitant about addressing a situation in which any aspect of health care is questionable. As they say in the airports, If you see something, say something. This especially applies to any potential violation of the injection safety. Lives depend on it.
I extend this important call to action to my fellow providers, here in Nebraska and throughout the country.
