Mothers Against Medical Errors Fight the Good Fight with Bill Clinton at Patient Safety Summit including Damon’s Case from Immortal Bird
Each year, more than 200,000 people die from preventable deaths in U.S. hospitals alone.
Tomorrow’s first Patient Safety Science and Technology Summit in Laguna Niguel, California, co-sponsored by Mothers Against Medical Errors and keynoted by former President Bill Clinton, speaks directly to this horrifying statistic and to Damon’s story. Indeed, thanks to MAME founder, Helen Haskell , Damon’s case—a preventable death in a US hospital–is one of several individual cases being highlighted at the conference.
The summit goal is “to help to create a world where patients can avoid preventable deaths and injuries.”
”Improving patient safety is one of the greatest challenges facing the healthcare industry,” says summit literature.… Clinicians, medical technology companies, payers, and regulators are too often pursuing their own initiatives. Cost-effectively solving patient safety challenges will require fundamental changes in the process of care and a collaborative effort from all stakeholders.”
Headlined “A Call to Action to Improve Patient Safety and Reduce Costs,” the summit will focus on three “addressable challenges” that can be solved now–one of which, the one that led to Damon’s death, is medical errors.
“Medical errors, defined as a preventable adverse event or effect of care, are a leading cause of death in the United States—exceeding deaths attributable to motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, and heart failure, ” according to summit materials. “They include inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis or treatment, as well as when an appropriate method of care is executed incorrectly. Human error has been implicated in nearly 80 percent of adverse events that occur in complex healthcare systems.”
Immortal Bird is one story of human medical error that resulted in a tragic loss of life and so I was asked to write a summary of Damon’s story and send it, along with a photo, for posting on the summit wall and web site. Tomorrow I will talk more about Helen Haskell, the founder of Mothers Against Medical Error, who first contacted me during the summer after she read Immortal Bird.
Doron, good luck in what looks to be a fascinating program in Laguna Nigel this weekend.
Best, Randy Sunshine