The Safe Patient Project is a Consumers Union campaign focused on eliminating medical harm, improving FDA oversight of prescription drugs and promoting disclosure laws that give information to consumers about health care safety and quality.
CDC
Consumer voices to be heard at national hospital infection meeting
Meet the eleven consumer advocates who will be attending a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)hospital infection meeting this week.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
Tags: CDC, HHS, ICU, medicare part d, patient safety activists, Patient Safety Day, public reporting
Consumers win on reporting surgical infection rates in CA
Last week, California hospitals lost their bid to avoid reporting their infection rates to the public. A California judge upheld a 2008 state law – one of the strongest in the nation – that calls on hospitals to report infections occurring from a broad array of surgeries.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
Tags: CDC, public reporting, surgical site infection
Recall Announcement Affects Consumers Union Employee
Medical recalls can indicate potential risk of serious injury or death to patients, but they often go unnoticed.
Categories: Drugs & Medical Devices
Tags: C. diff, CDC, FDA, medical device, Patient Safety Day, recall, video
Beware of Scary Superbugs in Your Hospital
It only takes three things for a hospital superbug to infect a patient. Should you be concerned?
Categories: MRSA
Tags: C. diff, CDC, medicare part d
MRSA Study Indicates Good News But Far Too Many Patients Suffering
Last week’s good news of a decline in serious MRSA health care-acquired infections, is a victory for patient safety, but we still have a long way to go to eliminate this very preventable crisis.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
Tags: CDC, ICU, medicare part d, public reporting, surgical site infection, VA, veterans, VRE
Patient safety activists hold “conversation” with CDC
On June 16, Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project and 11 patient safety advocates from 10 states attended the first “Consumer Conversation on Healthcare-Associated Infections” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
Tags: C. diff, CDC, patient safety activists, Patient Safety Day, public reporting, surgical site infection
Numerators
Guest blog post from Kerry O’Connell of Conifer, Colorado. Kerry is a member of the Colorado Health Facility Acquired Infections Advisory Committee. A committed patient safety advocate, he calls for restoring empathy and compassion in health care.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
Tags: CDC, Patient Safety Day
New CDC report on CLABSIs: One step forward, many more to go
This week the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a state-specific report (not hospital specific) on rates of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in the ICU as collected by its National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), a monitoring system that looks at hospital infections across the nation.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
Tags: CDC, CLABSI, ICU, public reporting, surgical site infection
Septicemia Statistics and the Need for Death Certificate Reform
Guest blog by Lori Nerbonne of NH Patient Voices–Death certificates are the primary source of important vital statistics in our country – yet too many certificates fail to tell the whole story.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
Tags: CDC, medicare part d, Septicemia, surgical error, surgical site infection
California Moving Too Slow On Patient Safety Progress
Since 2006, California lawmakers have passed laws to improve patient safety, yet the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has been moving at turtle speed to enforce these laws.
Categories: Doctor Accountability, Hospital Acquired Infections, Medical Errors, MRSA
Tags: CDC, flu, medicare part d
