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.
The mission of Washington Advocates for Patient Safety (WAPS) is to promote accountability, quality, safety, and responsibility in patient care. As the voice of patients, their goals are to eliminate medical errors and harm and to save more lives.
Medical Errors
Wrong surgery, wrong medication, serious bedsores… Unsafe practices and poor quality care kill 98,000 patients each year and waste billions of dollars every year. What information do you have about the safety of your hospital? What protections do you have if the hospital makes a mistake with you?
Click Here for State Medical Error Report Links
Consumers Union Documents
- Consumer Reports: The cancer tests you need—and those you don’t (preview only)
For this investigation, we pored over reams of research, consulted medical experts, surveyed more than 10,000 readers, and talked with patients. We found that too many people are getting tests they don’t need or understand, and too few are getting those that could save their lives. Many patients, and even some doctors, can be confused by cancer screening.
- Consumer Reports: Do you really need that mammogram?
Screenings for several forms of cancer, such as of the prostate and ovaries, get low marks in our new Ratings of cancer screening tests, because their risks clearly outweigh the benefits for most people. But the decision whether to get a mammogram to check for breast cancer is especially complex, as illustrated in three recent reports in the British Medical Journal.
- Consumer Comments on the Proposal for New Medicare Safety Measures
Consumers Union and its network of patient safety advocates comment on proposed patient safety measure for Medicare requirements.
- Consumer Reports: Many patients unaware of radiation risks from CT scans
Last time you had a CT scan did your doctor tell you that it would expose you to radiation? Probably not, according to a study out this week. And even if you were told, you might underestimate the radiation dose, too.
- Consumer Reports: Hospitals still order too many CT scans
Radiation exposure from a CT scan is about 350 times higher than from an ordinary chest X-ray. Yet some hospitals, including several large, well-known ones, continue to order too many of them, exposing patients to needless risk and expense, according our updated hospital Ratings.
Consumers Union News Releases
- Medicare Study Shows Most Medical Errors Go Unreported
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new study released today by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that hospital employees are only reporting fourteen percent of all medical errors and usually don’t change their practices to prevent future harm to patients.
- HHS Announces National Campaign to Improve Patient Safety
CONSUMERS UNION SAFE PATIENT PROJECT — NEWS RELEASE Please Note: Consumers Union can connect reporters with patients who have suffered from hospital infections and other medical harm. To find out more, contact Michael McCauley at mccami@consumer.org For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 Contact: Michael McCauley (mccami@consumer.org), 415-902-9537 (cell), 415-431-6747,
- Consumer Reports Poll Finds High Levels of Concern About Medical Harm & Support For Public Ratings on Hospital Safety
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.
- Maryland Bill Aims to Reduce Deadly Medical Errors
Maryland hospitals would be required to publicly disclose medical errors that occur while patients are being treated under a bill being considered.
- Hawaii Bill Aims to Reduce Deadly Medical Errors
Hawaii hospitals would be required to publicly disclose medical errors that occur while patients are being treated.
Blog Posts
- Must watch videos of Medical Harm: Advocates at Patient Safety Science and Technology Summit
Videos: Patient safety advocates, Lenore Alexander and Helen Haskell recently spoke at a conference and shared heartbreaking stories about their children; both how wonderful they were and how they tragically died from medical errors.
- Safe Patient Summit inspires patient safety advocates
This week, Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project brought 31 energized advocates from across the U.S. to the 7th annual Safe Patient summit November 12-14, with a day of presentations at Consumer Reports headquarters in Yonkers, NY.
- Washington Advocates for Patient Safety participate in Patient Safety Day
Last month on July 25, members of the Washington Advocates for Patient Safety (WAPS) commemorated Patient Safety Day in their home state of Washington by joining several people working on health care issues in the state and giving a voice to patients who have experienced preventable medical harm.
- Errors of Omission
Guest blog post by John T. James, Ph.D. founder of Patient Safety America, a website created to provide information to patients or potential patients who are concerned about the quality of health care they receive in this country.
- Tuesday 6/7: Join a live web chat with Safe Patient Project
Join the Chicago Tribune for a live web chat at noon CT (1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT) on Tuesday, June 7, to chat about hospital safety with Tribune reporter Judy Graham, and panelists Empowered Patient Coalition’s Dr. Julia Hallisy and Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project Director Lisa McGiffert.
News Articles
- Reports: Maine ranks first in hospital safety, medical errors on decline but some still serious Source: Bangor Daily News (Tuesday May 14, 2013)
Maine hospitals receive high marks on hospital safety according to Leapfrog Group ratings. Patient safety activist Kathy Day, member of CU’s Safe Patient Project network, quoted.
- Q&A with Helen Haskell: Where is the Patient Safety Movement Going? Source: Islands of Excellence (Wednesday May 1, 2013)
Q&A with Helen Haskell: Where is the Patient Safety Movement Going?
- It’s Time to Account for Medical Error in “Top Ten Causes of Death” Charts Source: Journal of Participatory Medicine (Wednesday April 24, 2013)
Partial summary: “Medical error has been reliably identified as among America’s leading causes of death. Yet it never appears in “top ten causes of death” charts that periodically appear in the literature, and this author has never heard medical error mentioned during end-of-life public panels where providers address citizens interested in planning for peaceful demises. “
- Owner of shuttered Terrell hospital charged with fraud Source: Dallas Morning News (Tuesday April 23, 2013)
“Federal authorities have filed criminal charges against the owner of Renaissance Hospital Terrell, which was shut down in February after inspectors said reckless care caused the death of two patients and endangered others.”
- Diagnostic errors are leading cause of successful malpractice claims Source: Washington Post (Monday April 22, 2013)
“Diagnostic errors, not surgical misadventures, obstetrical mistakes or improperly delivered medications, are the main source of successful malpractice claims. However, little is being done to identify such errors and measure their effects.”
Research and Reports
- Patient Safety America Newsletter (May 2013) - Practical Advice Source: Patient Safety America (Wednesday May 1, 2013)
The May newsletter includes summaries that are targeted to alert patients to ways to manage risk and cost: outpatient diagnostic errors, shopping for a hip replacement, too much calcium, radiation risk to your heart, screening for cervical cancer, and finally a series on patient-safety “progress.”
- Patient Safety America Newsletter (April 2013) Source: Patient Safety America (Sunday March 31, 2013)
Summary by John James: “Changes are long overdue in American healthcare as pointed out by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council in their new book “The US health Disadvantage Relative to Other High-income Countries.” My first newsletter article attempts to summarize this report. In the second article I discuss the risks associated with sleeping pills. The third article considers legislation that often has collateral damage. The fourth involves one doctor’s view of how he was led into care that was not patient centered. My next two articles deal with mental health: 1) As we age, we all fear the loss of mental capabilities, but a new study has linked mid-life fitness with a reduction in the risks of dementia. 2) Young people often do not have access to mental health facilities as pointed out by experts writing in the JAMA. The next articles deal with unintended death from pharmaceuticals and with loss of confidence in drug companies. The newsletter concludes with a short piece on the vanishingly small value of robotic surgery for those who might need a hysterectomy.”
- What to Do if You Have a Concern about Quality in a New York Hospital Source: Informed Patient Institute (Thursday March 28, 2013)
This tip sheet explains steps you can take within the hospital to deal with your concerns about quality of care. It also tells you how to contact the places that regulate or oversee hospitals. You can also consider filing a lawsuit, but that is not the focus of this tip sheet.
- Health Watch USA Newsletter - March 2013 Source: Health Watch USA (Wednesday March 27, 2013)
Patient safety news collected by Health Watch USA.
- The Empowered Patient Decision Support Web app Source: The Empowered Patient Coalition (Friday March 1, 2013)
The Empowered Patient Decision Support web app is a series of ten questions that help identify areas in which patients may need help and support when making health care decisions.
Activists
NEVER (NorthEast Voices for Error Reduction) is made up of member patient safety and advocacy organizations located throughout the northeast. The mission of NorthEast Voices for Error Reduction (NEVER) is the empowerment of patients and the elimination of healthcare harm by: advocating for patient interests in healthcare delivery; educating the public, the media, elected officials about patient safety, working toward a transparent and accountable healthcare system.
NEVER
Stories about Medical Errors
On February of 2010, my father, at the age of 89, was admitted to a hospital in Washington for an evaluation because he started showing signs of slight confusion. At his admission, he was in a fairly good state of health. He did not have any serious life threatening illness. However, he suddenly died at the hospital on the 5th day of his admission
Kimberly Yang
On June 9, 2008, my brother, Kenneth Novak died due to the terrible mistake of two anesthesiologists at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, FL. While central lines were being placed into his internal jugular vein to prepare for a liver transplant, the catheter/needle was advanced too far, perforating both the jugular and right subclavian artery. My brother bled to death.
Ginger of Monee, Illinois
To Delay is Deadly
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.