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.
ICU
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
Swine flu victim dies from hospital acquired infection
New York swine flu patient dies from a hospital-acquired infection in a local ICU where she had been successfully treated for swine flu.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
Tags: ICU, swine flu
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
Victory for patients! Public reporting of certain infections will go nationwide
Soon it will be easier for you to find out how well your hospital prevents certain infections. As part of the new health care reform law, the Department of Health and Human Services will require hospitals to publicly disclose several types of dangerous hospital infections.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
Tags: C. diff, HHS, ICU, medicare part d, public reporting, surgical site infection
Let’s talk about labels
A bill in California (SB 1390) would create a minimum of 12-point font for the most crucial information on medication labels and would require translation of medication label information into commonly used non-English languages.
Categories: Medical Devices & Drugs
Tags: C. diff, ICU, medication labels, Patient Safety Day, Pharma
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
A Lifesaving Safety Program Your Hospital Should Follow
An innovative “checklist” to reduce central line bloodstream infections in intensive care units has had incredible success in hospitals where it’s been adopted.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
Tags: CLABSI, ICU, medicare part d, Patient Safety Day
New Resource for Those Dissatisfied with a Health Care Experience
Guest blog post by Deb Wachenheim, Health Quality Manager at Health Care For All (HCFA) in Boston. HCFA has launched a new website that can help patients in Massachusetts and across the country speak up when something goes wrong in the hospital. There is information on asking for help when you are in the hospital, advice on how to file a complaint, and resources available to help you.
Categories: Doctor Accountability, Hospital Acquired Infections, Medical Errors
Tags: ICU
California Pharmacy Board Should Support Safer Medication Labels
Guest blog post written by Syed Sayeed, Policy Analyst at Consumers Union’s West Coast Office. CU is calling on California residents to submit comments to the Pharmacy Board by March 10th, in support of requiring all pharmacies to print important label information in at least a 12-point font size.
Categories: Medical Devices & Drugs
Tags: C. diff, CDC, ICU, medicare part d, medication labels, Pharma
Hospitals, get with the program
Hospital-acquired infections rarely make national headlines, but today, “Deadly infections” hits magazine racks across America in the March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports, published by Consumers Union.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
Tags: ICU, medicare part d, Patient Safety Day, public reporting
