Richard C. Boothman JD

Richard C. Boothman, JD, serves as the Executive Director of Clinical Safety and Chief Risk Officer at the University of Michigan Health System. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School. In July 2001, Rick left his work as a trial attorney in a busy malpractice defense practice in Michigan and Ohio to join the University of Michigan Health System, intent on establishing a new approach to medical malpractice.

By prioritizing patient safety over traditional claims management practices, he reasoned that patient injuries and claims would drop, communication would improve, and the interests of all involved in the intimate business of delivering health care would be better served. The approach he developed would come to be known as the Michigan Model. Rick and others at UMHS are now actively leveraging the benefits derived from transparency to other issues including bold innovations in peer review and creative corporate reorganization designed to more effectively capture and respond to patient safety challenges.

The U of M’s open and honest approach to patient injuries and its impact on patient safety and claims has garnered national and international attention. It has been featured in National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, All Things Considered, and Marketplace, the New England Journal of Medicine, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, BBC radio and the Korean Broadcasting System among many others. In 2005, Rick advised then senators Clinton and Obama in the formulation of legislation called the MEDiC Act. At the invitation of Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY) he testified before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in 2006. He advised a task force organized by Oregon’s governor to address the dual problems of patient injury and malpractice.