It's Our Money and Our Lives-Time to Take Control of Our Health Care
CHICAGO, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Patient care errors and the costs to treat them have tripled to 271,000 deaths and $66 billion wasted dollars this past decade. Improving the quality of patient care was suggested in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine when they reported that 44,000 to 98,000 die each year from preventable medical error and the overuse, misuse, and under use of care. Wrong site surgeries, prescription errors, etc. had to be corrected or more people would be lost to these unnecessary errors, including the EPIDEMIC of infections due to 50% of our caregivers not washing their hands.
The medical community, government, and insurers have failed to protect us from unnecessary harm and the extraordinary costs we cannot afford. We must take health care into our own hands. We must demand rates of infection and medical error be reported in every state, and public participation as a vital member of the health team, including preventative health information and coverage, safer procedures in radiation and treatments, sterile conditions, and access to a National Practitioner Data Base.
WE MUST HOLD HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS ACCOUNTABLE. We must insist on ending the practice of RESIDENT DOCTORS WORKING 30 HOUR SHIFTS. MONEY AND GIFTS GIVEN to doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and legislators from Lobbyists and special interests should be against the law. Patient Safety Week IS the RIGHT TIME FOR US TO HAVE A HEALTH CARE REVOLUTION and DEMAND A CONSUMER HEALTH PROTECTION AGENCY BE ESTABLISHED IMMEDIATELY AS PART OF HEALTH REFORM.
All the efforts of SAVE THE PATIENT promote positive and productive interactions between patients and medical professionals by encouraging individuals to know and implement their rights to ask questions, receive understandable answers, and explore medical options. "SAVE THE PATIENT'S mission is to assist the public in becoming better health care consumers. Visit www.savethepatient.org for more info.
SAVE THE PATIENT(SM) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support and education of individuals on health care matters. Founded in 2001 to fulfill the need for a non-biased, non-commercial community based non-profit organization to educate, inform, and empower patients as they attempt to make sound health care decisions, SAVE THE PATIENT provides information and education through patient advocacy, community outreach, educational seminars and its signature tool: the Health Caring Card.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Lenore Janecek, President
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 312-399-3532
SOURCE Save the Patient
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