Northwestern Memorial Hospital, CAPS, and p4ps Host Consumer Forum to Advance Partnerships to Improve Healthcare Pati...( First-of-its-kind workshop to con...),Health

First-of-its-kind workshop to convene at Northwestern Memorial June 19-21, 2008

CHICAGO, March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ask just about anyone about their healthcare experiences in America and chances are you will hear accounts of poor communication, medical error, or expected outcomes gone wrong. In fact, according to the national Institute of Medicine, preventable medical error is between the fourth and eighth leading cause of death in the United States. Even when the outcomes are not catastrophic, poor patient experiences can have lasting effects.

Diane Ford checked into a suburban Chicago hospital in May 1991 for a hysterectomy for relief from bleeding. A series of errors resulted in brain damage/permanent short term memory loss which left the 47-year old graduate student and mother of three teenagers unable to care for herself for the rest of her life. As a result, Dan, her former husband, has become deeply involved in advocacy for patient safety, elimination of medical errors, and constructive communication with patients and families during their interactions with providers and after such errors occur.

Thought leaders cite the failure of the healthcare professions to engage consumers in patient safety work -- to listen to the patient -- as a key factor in delaying progress in making healthcare safer. Now Dan Ford, who also works in the healthcare field, is a co-chair of an innovative new effort to energize and involve consumers and the healthcare community in a meaningful collaboration to improve patient safety in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Ensuring that healthcare providers provide state-of-the-art safeguards and other quality measures, in collaboration with informed and engaged patients, is the focus of Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS). With organizing partners Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the World Health Organization's Patients for Patient Safety Program, Pan American Health Organization and Pa
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