When physicians provide poor quality care, their patients are typically the last to know. Some physician backgrounds may be available in your state, but can you tell which ones have the most complaints, malpractice claims or disciplinary actions? Knowing the background information on your doctor could save your life.
Consumers Union (September 15, 2011)
Medicare has launched a new website directory of health-care providers who accept Medicare patients.
Consumer Reports has teamed with The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) to rate heart-surgery groups based on their performance data for bypass surgery. For the first time, consumers can easily see how surgical groups compare with national benchmarks for survival, complications, and other measures.
The Medical Board regulation requiring physicians to have a notice for patients with the Medical Board contact information has been approved. It goes into effect on June 27th. Medical Board of California (April 2010)
Consumers Union writes in support of the Board of Podiatric Medicine’s (BPM) adoption of proposed section 1399.730, Title 16 of the California Code of Regulations. This proposal requires doctors of podiatric medicine (DPMs) to notify their patients that they are licensed by the State of California, and provides the Board’s
On November 17, 2009, Consumers Union hosted a forum in Washington DC based on the 10-year anniversary of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) 1999 study on medical harm challenging our health system’s progress on preventing medical harm 10 years later. We released a report earlier in the year on this
CU recommends that health reform bill should includes disclosure requirements of any payments to hospitals, medical schools, and others and provides for a smaller exemption for gifts.
Ten years ago the Institute of Medicine (IOM) declared that as many as 98,000 people die each year needlessly because of preventable medical harm, including health care-acquired infections. Ten years later, we don’t know if we’ve made any real progress, and efforts to reduce the harm caused by our medical care system are few and fragmented. With little transparency and no public reporting (except where hard fought state laws now require public reporting of hospital infections), scarce data does not paint a picture of real progress.
Consumer groups have prepared a letter to the Medical Board of California in support of a regulation that would mandate specific, simple language from doctors to notify consumers that they are licensed and regulated by the Medical Board. We have also added our recommendations for strengthening the proposed regulation, which include making this information visible to the public in physician waiting areas and include a number where they can lodge complaints.
Consumer Reports Poll: Almost 9 in 10 Americans Say Public Should Have Access to Information Collected by Feds on Doctors
HHS decision to remove online access runs counter to Administration pledge to promote transparency
When Patients File Complaints Against Health Care Workers Washington Law Could Serve As A Model For Other States.
A new poll released today by the Consumer Reports National Research Center found high levels of public concern about hospital-acquired infections and other forms of medical harm.
Patients who file complaints against doctors and other health care providers would be able to find out more information about their complaints.
Consumers Union Calls For Public Reporting of Medical Errors
New Law Includes Important Patient Safety Provisions That Will Save Lives and Health Care Dollars
Consumers Union Assesses Lack of Progress Ten Years After Institute of Medicine Found Up To 98,000 Die From Preventable Errors
A Consumer Reports national poll found that almost 9 in 10 Americans (88%) said the public should have access to federally collected information about problems with doctors.
Hear advice from consumer advocates on patient safety.
Patient safety activist identifies errors in JAMA article; JAMA corrects it. Guest blog post by John James.
On Saturday, October 9, the Empowered Patient Coalition along with Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project and AARP California will be holding a special training in San Diego for patients and caregivers on how to stay safe in the hospital.
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.
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.
On November 17, Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project is hosting a forum in Washington DC based on the 10-year anniversary of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) study on medical errors, “To Err Is Human.”
Some Find That Confronting Mistakes Reduces Litigation—and Future Mishaps.
A new documentary, Money-Driven Medicine, offers a thoughtful perspective to the health care reform debate that couldn’t be timelier.
Join patient safety advocates across the country tomorrow to observe Patient Safety Day.
Drugmaker Allergan best known for its wrinkle-fighting drugs Botox and Juvederm, removes old reports of payments to doctors from its website. Allergan is among 12 pharmaceutical companies that post such payments to the web, either voluntarily or as a result of legal settlements with the U.S. government over allegations of improper marketing and illegal kickbacks to doctors.
Iowa Republican Charles Grassley sent letters to 34 states Monday asking what steps they had taken to investigate doctors whose prescribing of antipsychotics, anti-anxiety drugs and painkillers to Medicaid patients far exceeds that of their peers. “When these drugs are prescribed to Medicaid patients, it is the American people who pay the price for over-prescription, abuse, and fraud,” wrote Senator Grassley.
Alan Bavley reports on the secrecy of the National Practitioner Data Bank and mentions Consumers Union’s poll results that found nearly nine in 10 people said the public should have full access to the database.
As of 2013, a national physician payment database created under the Affordable Care Act will make such information available to all.
“Two nursing home employees in Georgia were arrested for allegedly attacking an elderly woman in a ‘manner similar to waterboarding,’ according to local police.”
HealthLeaders Media reports on Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project call to open the National Practitioner Data Bank to the public.
Physician sentenced to federal prison for implanting unnecessary coronary stents in dozens of patients, then fraudulently billing insurers thousands for the work.
Texas doctor will spend two months in jail and be on probation for five years after pleading guilty to retaliating against two nurses who reported him to state medical regulators.
The Obama administration has reposted the Public Use Data File but with new restrictions that ProPublica journalist Charles Ornstein says are “unworkable and amount to a prior restraint.”
The Obama administration should restore the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank for use by the public.
This Web page contains information about OIG’s most wanted health care fugitives. In all, OIG is seeking more than 170 fugitives on charges related to health care fraud and abuse.
Health and Human Services Administration (HRSA) letter responding to Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project, regarding its decision to remove the National Practitioner Data Bank Public Use File on September 1, 2011. Consumers Union’s letter to HRSA can be read here.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today asked the head of a federal agency to explain a decision to shut down public access to data on malpractice payouts, hospital discipline and regulatory sanctions against doctors and other health professionals
Letter from six national journalism organizations to Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius elevating their concerns about a decision by the Health Resources and Services Administration to remove the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank from the agency’s website.
Investigative Reporters and Editors post National Practitioner Data Bank public use file (available for download) on physicians that was removed by the federal government last week.
Look to see if your doctor has ties to drug and medical device companies.
Thanks to the Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act of 2010, consumers can now search for online profiles of different healthcare professionals.
This tip sheet explains steps you can take in your doctor’s office to deal with your concerns about quality. It also tells you how to contact places that regulate or oversee doctors.
How to get information on NJ medical doctors, podiatrists and optometrists.
Public Citizen reviewed the National Practitioner Data Bank Public. They found that physicians who had violations recorded in the Data Bank escaped any state licensing action.
In 2001, Patty and David Skolnik spent nearly three years watching their only child, Michael, play victim to a broken system as a result of unnecessary brain surgery. Due to medical error caused by negligence and incompetence, routine expectations of our healthcare system proved ineffective in providing quality medical care and patient safety for 22 year old Michael Skolnik.
The surgeon was not prepared for my sedative needs, did not listen to my request of what to give me, and because I was holding up the Endoscopic Unit, he called for an anesthesiologist I had never met. He never asked a single question, nor did he check out my charts. He simply injected me with Propofol, without the Lidocaine to ease the pain. I was in hell, and then out for a quick intubation. As a heart patient with all the symptoms from that, I should not have had Propofol. I woke up coughing my guts and lungs up as they extubated me. I was on the other side of the hospital in the main recovery area. Neither doctor came to tell me what happened and what might happen later.
I was involved in a motor vehicle accident. I arrived at the hospital alert but with a dislocated hip and a fractured ankle. At the time of treatment I was told they needed x-rays and I would be getting something for pain.
I received the wrong dosage of Lupron Depot after my shot was sent to the wrong doctor’s office. The nurse said they had an extra one on-site and gave me that one instead. I asked her if it was the 3.75 dose before she gave it to me, and she said yes. After the nurse gave me the shot, she realized it was the wrong dose and was actually the 11.25 shot…
In 2003, my wife, Lisa, age 42, an insulin-dependent diabetic, collapsed into a coma while in a hospital. At the time she was discovered she had no pulse and was not breathing and her blood glucose level was almost non-existent at 2mg/dL.
For two years (2006-2008) I was in the ER repeatedly with vomiting, pain, etc. I saw a physician in their facility on an outpatient basis. I eventually suffered arrhythmias, multiple episodes of aspiration pneumonia, and was even referred to psychiatric help.
98,000 people die each year needlessly because of preventable medical harm. Efforts to reduce this are few and fragmented. With little transparency and no public reporting (except where hard fought state laws now require it), scarce data does not paint a picture of real progress.
In this report (PDF) we give the country a failing grade on progress on select recommendations we believe necessary to create a health-care system free of preventable medical harm.
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.