CUSTOMERS UNION PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Call: Michael McCauley, [email protected] or 415-902-9537 (cell) or Ross Moonie, [email protected] or 917-690-5713 or Joe Duraes, [email protected] or 914-293-0100
- Consumers Union To Hold “Closing Medical Harm”
- Meeting at Columbia University On November 6
- Meeting To Focus on Tackling The third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.
New York, NY– Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division of Customer Reports, will mark the tenth anniversary of its Safe Patient Job at the upcoming “Closing Medical Damage” conference at Columbia College in New York City on November 6. The seminar will include a series of panel discussions on the immediate demand for hospitals to do more to prevent clinical errors and also healthcare facility got infections, lately estimated to represent the third leading cause of death in the USA.
” Yearly, thousands of countless Americans pass away needlessly from avoidable clinical mistakes as well as medical facility got infections,” claimed Lisa McGiffert, supervisor of Consumers Union’s Safe Client Job (www.safepatientproject.org). “Offered the variety of lives at stake, the united state must be dealing with patient security as a nationwide emergency and mounting a much more hostile campaign to end clinical injury.”
The “End Medical Injury” conference will take place in between 10am as well as 3pm on the 6th and also include a variety of speakers, consisting of person safety and security professionals from Consumers Union and Consumer Reports; journalists whose investigative reporting has shed light on the range of the trouble; as well as people hurt by infections, clinical errors, and dangerous clinical implants who have ended up being leading advocates for safer care.
At 3:30 pm, meeting guests will gather at nearby St. Luke’s HospitalCenter (edge of W. 114th St. and also Amsterdam Ave.) for a presentation on the need for better healthcare facility safety. For a full list of speakers and also timetable, see the seminar agenda.
Quotes differ on the variety of people who pass away from hospital-acquired infections and also medical mistakes each year however the death toll is indisputably extremely steep. A November 2010 research by the united state Department of Wellness & Person Services (HHS) discovered that medical facility infections and also clinical mistakes including Medicare people add to around 180,000 fatalities and also 1.4 million significant injuries each year.
Since the HHS research covered just Medicare people, the general death toll and variety of injuries from medical mistakes and medical facility infections is a lot higher. A recent analysis published by the Journal of Client Security by John T. James, creator of Patient Safety America and also a member of Consumers Union network of supporters, wrapped up that as numerous as 440,000 Americans die every year as a result of preventable harm while hospitalized. James will certainly be a featured speaker at the End Medical Injury conference.
” In 1999, the Institute of Medication estimated that 98,000 Americans died from medical harm yearly– a statistic that stunned the country,” said McGiffert. “It is a shame that those numbers have expanded, today standing for the 3rd leading cause of death in America. That’s the matching of more than 2 jumbo jets loaded with passengers crashing daily.”
Medical facility infections and medical mistakes include billions of bucks to clinical expenses yearly because they often lead to longer healthcare facility stays and also added surgical procedures as well as treatments. The CDC approximates that health center infections alone set you back the united state healthcare system $45 billion each year.
Since 2003, Consumers Union’s Safe Individual Project has advocated for and aided pass legislations in 31 states as well as the Area of Columbia needing healthcare facilities to publicly divulge their person infection prices. Medical facility infection reporting regulations have actually increased public understanding of client infections and also stimulated prevention efforts in medical facilities.
Consumers Union’s multi-year campaign helped lead to hospital infection reporting on the national level. Most healthcare facilities across the country currently report particular infection rates to the Centers for Illness Control as well as Prevention for financial rewards given by Medicare.
Consumers Union likewise has actually promoted public coverage of medical errors. Twenty-six states need hospitals to report medical mistakes, but less than half disclose hospital-specific details. Most states with reporting legislations require health centers to divulge errors that show up on the National Top quality Forum’s “never event” list, that include 28 errors that specialists agree can be prevented as well as ought to never occur. Beyond pushing for public disclosure, Consumers Union has actually prompted medical facilities to take on methods that have been proven to prevent medical facility infections and clinical mistakes.
The conference will also feature conversations about the security of medical implants. Over the past two years, the Safe Client Task has supported for boosted safety screening of new implants and more rigorous monitoring of difficulties once devices are on the marketplace.
” Individuals depend on that somebody is assessing all clinical implants for security and effectiveness before they are permitted to be utilized, but that is simply not happening,” said McGiffert. “We require to reinforce our system of oversight as well as makers ought to agree to stand by their items with a guarantee.”
Consumer Reports likewise addresses the concern of healthcare facility safety and security. For instance, the Customer Reports Surgical procedure Ratings take a look at exactly how people get on in the past and also after surgical treatment and are based upon the portion of a healthcare facility’s Medicare people that die in the healthcare facility or remained longer than anticipated for the procedure. The Scores consist of a total Surgical treatment Ranking, which integrates results for 27 classifications of arranged surgeries, in addition to private Scores for five specific procedure kinds: back surgical procedure, hip substitute, knee substitute, angioplasty, as well as carotid artery surgery. Consumer News’ Surgical procedure Rankings are based on an analysis of billing asserts that health centers submitted to Medicare for people 65 and older, from 2009 via 2011, as well as cover 2,463 healthcare facilities in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., as well as Puerto Rico. For additional information, see Customer News Scores. John Santa, M.D., M.P.H., Medical Director of Consumer Information Health and wellness, will certainly talk at the Ending Medical Injury seminar.