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.
Rosemary Gibson has made her mark as a national leader in patient safety. She is the author of The Treatment Trap, which puts a human face on the overuse of unnecessary medical treatment.
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?
Consumers Union Documents
- Treating heart disease
As doctors and hospitals add more expensive high-tech gadgetry to their arsenals, all too often it’s profit—not science—driving decisions on how heart disease is detected and treated in the U.S. Consumer Reports shines a light on excessive testing and overtreatment.
- Your hospital survival guide: The basics
Here’s Consumer Reports Health’s advice for a safe hospital stay, from check-in to discharge. We assume you’ll be staying overnight, but much of our advice applies to outpatient visits, too.
- What hospitals can learn from Southwest Airlines
A recent report in the journal Health Affairs suggests that there are lots of cracks even in good hospitals that can lead to gaping and potentially deadly holes in patient care. And unlike the airline industry, the study suggests that safeguards to detect and correct the cracks are inadequate.
- Video: Advice on staying safe in the hospital–from the experts
- Testimony of Consumers Union on Public Reporting of Medical Harm in MD
Testimony of Consumers Union regarding a bill requiring public reporting of medical harm March 3, 2011.
- Testimony of Consumers Union on Public Reporting of Medical Harm in HI
Consumers Union supports a bill that will require acute care hospitals in Hawaii to report incidences of medical harm to the department of health, which will use the data to create a public report.
- Model Medical Harm Disclosure Act
Model Medical Harm Disclosure Act
- Drug overuse threatens nursing home residents
Routine prescribing of powerful medications occurs too often, our investigation finds
- Staying safe in the hospital (pdf)
Consumer Reports on Health provides a guide to a healthier hospital stay, walking you through a visit from check-in to discharge, describing how to prepare and providing tips on questions to ask along the way.
- Preventable Harm: California Fails to Follow Through With Patient Safety Laws
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.
- Report Finds Medical Errors More Common
Consumers Union Calls For Public Reporting of Medical Errors
- California’s Enforcement of Patient Safety Laws Still Lagging
The California Department of Public Health has been slow to implement a number of key provisions of medical error public reporting.
- Report Finds That Only Half of California Hospital Workers Got Flu Vaccine
Report Finds That Only Half of California Hospital Workers Got Flu Vaccine
- Health Care Reform Law Poised to Make Health Care Safer
New Law Includes Important Patient Safety Provisions That Will Save Lives and Health Care Dollars
- Consumers Union Finds Slow Progress on Patient Safety in California
California Department of Public Health Has Failed to Carry Out Key Requirements of Recent Patient Safety Laws
Blog Posts
- 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.
- Video: Advice on staying safe in the hospital–from the experts
Hear advice from consumer advocates on patient safety.
- If you’re in the San Diego area tomorrow, meet us at the Empowered Patient training
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- U.S. Congressman dies following surgical error, infection
Our leaders in Congress experience medical harm, too. On Monday, Politico reported that Pennsylvania U.S. Congressman John Murtha had died as a result of complications from recent gallbladder removal surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
- Delaying Is Deadly–Join Our Patient Safety Webcast on November 17
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.”
- Hospitals in the Blogosphere
If your hospital had a blog, would you read it? More importantly, would you expect to see information that every patient deserves – such as hospital infection rates or harmful medical errors happening there?
- RFO Encounters in Pennsylvania
You’ve heard of UFOs but have you heard of RFOs? 194 Pennsylvanians could tell you about their RFO encounter last year – that’s how many cases of “retained foreign objects” were reported to that state’s Patient Safety Authority in 2008.
News Articles
- Yes, Real-Time Monitoring Would Have Saved Leah Source: Pittsburgh Healthcare Report (Thursday February 2, 2012)
Article by Lenore Alexander, active member of Mothers Against Medical Errors, about her 11-year-old daughter Leah’s tragic death from hospital errors, including lack of monitoring. Since Leah’s death nearly 10 years ago, her mother has continued to ask many questions and learn why this happened to her daughter so that other lives can be saved.
- Doctor, Did You Check Your Checklist? Source: Kaiser Health News (Monday January 30, 2012)
Article on medical harm in the DC area. The District of Columbia reports on injuries occurring in the city’s hospitals, for example, but doesn’t say at which hospital the problems occurred. The public has a right to information about medical harm that is hospital-specific. Article includes tips by Consumer Reports and Dr. Peter Pronovost on how to stay safe in the hospital.
- Hospital Errors Persist, State Probes Rare Source: Connecticut Health I-Team (Sunday January 29, 2012)
An in-depth article analyzing the Connecticut adverse event report with quotes by advocate Jean Rexford, director of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety. The new Adverse Event Report, prepared by the CT Department of Public Health, marks the first time that acute-care hospitals and other medical facilities have been publicly identified by name, as they report errors that caused harm to patients.
- Federal suit claims Hamot, heart doctors defrauded Medicare Source: Erie Times-News (Sunday January 22, 2012)
Heart doctors put heart stents into patients who didn’t need them.
- Danger in delivery: Despite technology, U.S. trails entire western world in saving mothers Source: News-Register (Wednesday January 18, 2012)
Cesarean sections, once considered emergency procedures, have become all but routine in the U.S. Experts say the procedure contributes to maternal deaths.
- Number of adverse health events in Minnesota hospitals increases slightly in 2011
Minnesota’s 2011 Adverse Events Report press release
- Northeast Florida hospitals reducing readmissions Source: The Florida Times-Union (Wednesday January 11, 2012)
Area hospitals working to reduce readmission rates, which are often due to poor discharge planning.
- Editorial: Tracking medical errors remains stubbornly inconsistent Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Wednesday January 11, 2012)
Medical errors need to be tracked and reported to the public. Right now, Missouri consumers have no way of accessing medical harm information about their local hospital because there is no mandatory public reporting law in the state of Missouri.
- Report Finds Most Errors at Hospitals Go Unreported Source: New York Times (Friday January 6, 2012)
The inspector general estimated that more than 130,000 Medicare beneficiaries experienced one or more adverse events in hospitals in a single month.
- Video: Hospital Mix-Ups More Common Than Thought Source: ABC News (Friday January 6, 2012)
Hospital workers report only 1 in 7 medical mistakes on Medicare patients, according to a new study by the Office of Inspector General. Interview features patient safety activist, Mary Brennan-Taylor of New York, whose mother died from preventable hospital infection.
Research and Reports
- Patient Safety America Newsletter (February 2012) Source: Patient Safety America (Wednesday February 1, 2012)
Newsletter covers topics of over diagnosis and overtreatment, the underreporting of medical harm events, and allowing the voice of patients to be heard in reporting medical errors.
- Connecticut Adverse Event Report (2011)
The CT Department of Public Health releases its first hospital specific adverse event report.
- Patient Safety America Newsletter (December 2011)
Monthly patient safety newsletter by John T. James, Ph.D. of Houston, TX.
- Trends in Pregnancy-Associated Maternal Death in Virginia, 1999-2008
Maternal mortality is increasing in VA
- Adverse Events in Hospitals: Medicare's Responses to Alleged Serious Events
Medicare hospital oversight failed to address serious medical errors such as medication and surgical errors, physical abuse by hospital staff, and patient suicide.
- The Joint Comission responds to coalition of patient safety consumer groups regarding The Joint Comission's complaint process
Response letter from The Joint Commission President, Mark Chassin, to patient safety advocates who called on the organization earlier this month to improve responsiveness to patient complaints.
- Too Little? Too Much? Primary Care Physicians' Views on US Health Care
Study: Nearly half of all primary care physicians in the United States think that their own patients are receiving too much medical care, and more than one-quarter believe that they themselves are practicing too aggressively.
- Consumer groups seek Senator Harkin to help in making Medicare accreditation surveys public
Patient safety consumer groups, including Consumers Union, seek Senator Harkin to help in making Medicare accreditation surveys public.
- Consumer groups call on The Joint Commission to improve responsiveness to patient complaints
A coalition of patient safety consumer groups, including Consumers Union, wrote a letter to the Joint Commission to improve responsiveness to patient complaints.
- 2010 State Snapshots
Information about the quality of care in your state by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Charts and individual state performance summaries based on more than 100 quality measures such as preventing pressure sores, screening for diabetes-related foot problems, and giving recommended care to pneumonia patients.
Stories about Medical Errors
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
On September 30 of 1991, a simple forceps biopsy was performed (in my chest of a massive 13cm tumor) to diagnose, and/or grade and stage Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A surgical accident occured during this biopsy
Holly of San Diego, California
In 2008, my Dad was in a local hospital where he was given a sulfa medication, despite the fact that he was wearing a red wrist band warning about his well-documented life-threatening sulfa allergy, and despite that many medical references do not support this off-label use of the drug in my Dad’s medical condition. Furthermore, without an emergency, the doctor and the nurses never informed my Dad or me (his medical power of attorney at the hospital 24/7) about the drug being a sulfa drug, or any of its risks. We even repeatedly asked the doctor about the drug risks before its administration. Yet the doctor withheld all this critical drug information, and lied about the drug risks (which turned out to be significant to my Dad). We later learned that there was also a plan to monitor my Dad after the first dose to watch for an anaphylactic drug reaction. But no one told us anything about this monitoring plan, even after my Dad showed signs of a serious drug reaction.
Yanling of Seattle, Washington
On November 14, 2003, I suffered two brainstem strokes after having an upper neck manipulation. Initially, I lost speech, feeling in my right side, had a facial droop and slurred speech. When admitted to the stroke center, I found out that this is a known risk of chiropractic upper neck manipulations.
Christa of Mahopac, New York
In 1976 I had my back operated on (because I had a ruptured disk) and the doctor fused my back wrong. In 1978, a neurologist tried to fix it, but the damage was too extensive. I have had chronic pain every since.
Elizabeth of Umatilla, Oregon
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.