Citations to IOM report


2004 Citations to the Institute of Medicine Report that 44,000 to 98,000 People Die Annually Due to Hospital Errors These are "leads" only - Contact publishers for full text.	http://md-jd.info http://md-jd.info/errors.htm

See: 10/05/04 Too Few Lawsuits, Not Too Many

New Jersey Law Journal
December 27, 2004
The Real Victims of Tort Reform
Now that the Republicans have won more seats in Congress, and President Bush has won re-election, the move toward "tort reform" will be gathering more momentum.
The problem is that the perception of the need for tort reform is outweighing the facts. If consumer advocacy groups do not put an end to these misconceptions, the tort system as we know it will be a relic.
Evidence of this gathering momentum can be seen in the recent election:
§ * Sixty-four percent of Florida voters approved a referendum to limit attorneys' fees in medical malpractice cases to 30 percent of the first $250,000 and 10 percent of any amount thereafter.
§* An Illinois Supreme Court candidate who ran on a tort reform platform was elected, funded largely by insurance companies and doctors.
§* California voters passed a proposition limiting who can sue under the state's unfair business competition law.
§* Nevada voters approved a tort reform measure, known as "Keep Our Doctors in Nevada," which would remove two exceptions from cap limitations and limit attorneys' fees based on the size of the settlement.
The facts do not justify these extreme measures. In November, the president of the largest medical malpractice carrier in Texas stated that caps on damages there will do nothing to reduce malpractice premiums since malpractice awards are only a small percentage of the overall underwriting equation.
And the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies published a study in 1999 stating that 44,000 to 98,000 patients die each year in the hospital as a result of physician error. Yet, for some reason, the facts get overshadowed by hype and innuendo.
Why is this? Is it because trial lawyers are easy targets? Is it because doctors and insurance groups have bigger lobbying and advertising budgets? It is difficult to say. When you ask doctors privately whether they feel legitimate malpractice suits are the cause of the increase in their premiums, most will say no. If you ask judges how many frivolous suits are tried before them, the answer will be few, if any.
While talk of tort reform measures is essentially limited to medical negligence at this juncture, this is only a beginning. When the insurance industry and anticonsumer groups obtain the necessary reforms in the medical field, they will turn to products liability cases, consumer fraud cases and other causes of action. None of this is justified.
While there is no question that our livelihood as attorneys is at stake, it is the general public who will suffer the most. The tort system as we know it has provided access to the court system for individuals who would never have been able to do so were it not for the contingency fee system. As a result, cases that have improved the safety of vehicles, machines, power saws and lawnmowers could never have been brought were it not for attorneys who work for the middle class without guaranteed fees.
Other suits have resulted in removing dangerous drugs from the marketplace, making sure insurers pay claims they are legally obligated to pay and protecting workers from being discriminated against or wrongfully discharged due to age, race or gender.
These "tort reformers" never stress the good that attorneys have done [let's not forget the 1,100 attorneys who worked for free for Sept. 11 victims and their families], or that without us, millions of Americans would have been denied access to the courts.
The real problem is not that attorneys will no longer be able to make a living. We will find other avenues to pursue. The real victims are the working and middle classes. Their only voice against big business, insurers, the medical profession and the tobacco industry has been attorneys willing to take on their cases with no guarantee of success. When the public reads stories of tort reform, there is never mention of the cases attorneys lose, in which they receive nothing.
The problem is not one of facts, but perception. If we as attorneys do not act now, and do not help get the message out, the practice as we know it will be a thing of the past. The unfortunate aspect of all this is that it is not the attorneys who will suffer the most, it is the middle class. We cannot let that happen.

The News Journal
December 21, 2004 Tuesday
Delawareans to carry medical history in their pocket;
Card will give doctors round-the-clock access
By HIRAN RATNAYAKE The News Journal
In the wee hours of the morning, a man crashes his car.
He is unconscious and rushed to a hospital. The emergency room doctors can't find any medical information on him. They perform a CAT scan, unaware he is allergic to the radiological dye used in the diagnostic X-ray procedure.

The Washington Post
December 21, 2004 Tuesday
Final Edition
Automated Systems For Drugs Examined;
Report: Computers Can Add to Errors
Computer systems designed to prevent medication errors in hospitals can actually contribute to mistakes, according to a new report.
As more hospitals have implemented automated systems for administering drugs, the number of errors associated with them has risen, according to an annual report on medication errors released yesterday by the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), a nonprofit group that sets standards for the drug industry.
"It would seem logical that applying computer technology to the medication use process would have a significant positive impact in preventing medication errors," said Diane Cousins, vice president of USP's Center for the Advancement of Patient Safety. "Yet, depending on the computer's design or user competence, new points of potential errors can emerge."

States News Service
December 20, 2004 Monday
CASTLE, CARPER ANNOUNCE $700,000 IN FEDERAL FUNDING TO JUMP START ELECTRONIC HEALTH SYSTEM IN DELAWARE
The following information was released by the Office of Rep. Mike Castle:
U.S. Congressman Mike Castle and Senator Tom Carper today announced that they secured $700,000 in a major federal funding "earmark" to help jumpstart a project they have been working on with the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) -- key hospitals, doctors, laboratories and other medical providers throughout Delaware to transition to an electronic records system. The goal of the project is to help healthcare providers securely share medical information to improve patient care, save lives and substantially reduce healthcare costs
Funding was secured by Castle, Carper and Sen. Joe Biden in the Fiscal Year 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which President Bush recently signed into law. The purpose of the DHIN is to transition to a system to provide an electronic method for healthcare providers to request and receive appropriate health related information for their patients at the point of care.
Although DHIN advisors, which include state and federal officials and healthcare providers, have yet to make formal decisions about what the DHIN will look like, the technology is envisioned to work similarly to a credit card system. Patients will have cards authorizing the doctor to access his or her information in the same way as companies access bank and credit card accounts to check financial solvency.

US Fed News
December 20, 2004 Monday 10:48 AM EST
REP. CASTLE, SEN. CARPER ANNOUNCE $700,000 IN FEDERAL FUNDING TO JUMP START ELECTRONIC HEALTH SYSTEM IN DELAWARE
Rep. Michael N. Castle, R-Del. (at-large), issued the following press release:
Rep. Mike Castle and Sen. Tom Carper today announced that they secured $700,000 in a major federal funding "earmark" to help jumpstart a project they have been working on with the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) - key hospitals, doctors, laboratories and other medical providers throughout Delaware to transition to an electronic records system. The goal of the project is to help healthcare providers securely share medical information to improve patient care, save lives and substantially reduce healthcare costs.

US Fed News
December 20, 2004 Monday 9:54 AM EST
SEN. CARPER, REP. CASTLE ANNOUNCE $700,000 IN FEDERAL MONEY TO JUMPSTART ELECTRONIC HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM IN DELAWARE
The office of Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., issued the following press release:
Sen. Tom Carper and Rep. Mike Castle today announced that they secured $700,000 in a major federal funding "earmark" to jumpstart a project designed to help healthcare providers share medical information to improve patient care, save lives and substantially reduce healthcare costs.

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)
December 6, 2004 Monday
FINAL EDITION
HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO FILL COVERAGE GAP
Q) I am one of hundreds of thousands of airline employees continuing to battle the impact of 9/11, a poor economy, unemployment and/or underemployment. My previous employer of 27 years is in bankruptcy and has given notice it intends to suspend health and dental benefits by Dec. 31. It may offer COBRA coverage, but the monthly rate for that coverage would equal about 30 percent of my monthly part-time take home pay.

The Boston Globe
December 5, 2004, Sunday THIRD EDITION
LEFT BEHIND
The Stories Are Scary: a Patient Finds That His Surgeon Left a Sponge or Maybe a Clamp in His Body. But Atul Gawande Is Trying to Write Happier Endings.
DR. ATUL GAWANDE IS conducting a simulated thyroid removal at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The operation is a bloody procedure. It involves about 100 instruments and dozens of surgical sponges, small gauzelike pads used for sopping up blood. Each time Gawande asks for more sponges, the nurses count them aloud before handing them over - the standard way of keeping track of equipment to make sure nothing gets left inside the patient. Later, as he's getting ready to close, an exchange takes place that no surgeon wants to hear.
"Do you have all the sponges?" says one of the nurses. "I count 27, so three must still be in there."
"I don't see any," says the other.

The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
December 3, 2004 Friday
ALL EDITION
EDITORIAL ROUNDUP
Funding for veterans
No matter how you look at the news about the budget for veterans' health care in 2005, you can't be encouraged about our nation's commitment to taking care of those who have protected us.
While it is true that the budget calls for a record $30.3 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion from this year, it falls considerably short of the $3.1 billion increase the House Veterans Affairs Committee said in February was needed just to maintain the current level of benefits and services. ...

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
December 2, 2004 Thursday Broward Metro Edition
SIMPLE SOLUTION TO MALPRACTICE CRISIS
Much is being said and written about the malpractice crisis and the need for "reform" limiting the liability of health-care practitioners. The problem is usually attributed to "greedy trial lawyers."

December 2, 2004
HealthBiz: Creating a safety culture

Lots of companies use the slogan "Safety is Job 1" and it is a good one for healthcare because it makes safety a culture creature from the executive suite to the mail room.
A new study on patient safety -- and a lot of people follow this since the Institutes of Medicine in 1999 reported up to 98,000 people die each year because of medical errors -- finds, however, that U.S. healthcare providers have not done a very good job at creating the culture and implementing system changes needed to reduce errors.
"It's both top down and bottom up," Dr. Robert Wachter, associate chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told UPI's HealthBiz. "There has to be a commitment from senior leaders ... that 'Safety is Job 1.'"

Chicago Tribune
November 26, 2004 Friday
Chicago Final Edition
Letting sleepy docs lie (down)
Of all the questions that patients ask their doctors, there's one that often is overlooked: How much sleep have you had?
That's a question every patient, particularly those awaiting surgery or other invasive procedure, should be asking after the dramatic results of two new studies in the New England Journal of Medicine. The studies examined the performance of sleep-deprived interns--first-year doctors-in-training who provide much direct medical care in teaching hospitals. They found that the longer the interns went without sleep, the more errors they made.

Drug Topics
November 22, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 127716294
Oh no! Not another medication error!Continuing education: supported through an unrestricted educational granted from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
In 1996, the Institute of Medicine began a program to assess and improve the quality of health care in the United States. These efforts ultimately resulted in publication of the report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. This report states that health care in the United States is not as safe as it need be to ensure the health and welfare of U.S. citizens. The report states that 44,000, and possibly as many as 98,000, people die each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented. Just the errors with medications alone, either in or out of the hospital, are said to account for more than 7,000 deaths in this country.
Medication errors are clearly a serious matter, and we would all agree that pharmacists as well as other healthcare practitioners do not intend to make mistakes. Indeed, errors are not maliciously intended, yet they continue to occur more frequently than we would like to admit. On the other hand, it is understandable to discuss the limitations of "being human" and "momentary lapses of concentration" that can predispose pharmacists to error propagation. Yet we are all trained, just like other healthcare professionals, to provide health care that is free from errors. No errors are acceptable in health care, since it takes only one mistake to injure a patient.

Health Insurance Law Weekly
November 21, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD.

Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA
November 21, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD. "Improving patient safety in clinics and hospitals is in many cases the best way there is to protect the advances we have made in health care."

Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week
November 20, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD. "Improving patient safety in clinics and hospitals is in many cases the best way there is to protect the advances we have made in health care."

American Health Line
November 18, 2004 Thursday
MEDICAL ERRORS: U.S. RESIDENTS BELIEVE QUALITY WORSENING,; SURVEY SHOWS
Four in 10 U.S. residents believe that the quality of
health care in the United States has worsened in the past five
years, despite widespread efforts by the health care industry to
reduce medical errors following a 1999 Institute of Medicine
report that attributed between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths annually
to preventable mistakes made in U.S. hospitals, according to a
report released Thursday by the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality, Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of
Public Health, the Scripps Howard/Detroit News reports (Bowman,
Scripps Howard/Detroit News, 11/18).
FINDINGS
For the report -- which has a margin of error of plus or
minus two percentage points -- researchers surveyed 2,012
randomly selected adults across the United States by phone from
July 7 to Sept. 5. Findings are summarized below. - Forty
percent of the public believes that the quality of care in the
United States has worsened in the past five years, compared with
38% who believe it has stayed the same and 17% who believe it
has improved (May Yee, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/17). -
About 55% of the public are dissatisfied with the quality of
care, up from 44% four years ago (Bloomberg, 11/17). -
Forty-eight percent of the public are concerned about the safety
of medical care that they and their families receive
(Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/18). - Thirty-four percent of the
public say that either they or a family member have experienced
a medical error at some point.

American Health Line
November 18, 2004 Thursday
MEDICAL ERRORS: U.S. RESIDENTS BELIEVE QUALITY WORSENING,; SURVEY SHOWS
Four in 10 U.S. residents believe that the quality of
health care in the United States has worsened in the past five
years, despite widespread efforts by the health care industry to
reduce medical errors following a 1999 Institute of Medicine
report that attributed between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths annually
to preventable mistakes made in U.S. hospitals, according to a
report released Thursday by the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality, Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of
Public Health, the Scripps Howard/Detroit News reports (Bowman,
Scripps Howard/Detroit News, 11/18).
FINDINGS
For the report -- which has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points -- researchers surveyed 2,012 randomly selected adults across the United States by phone from
July 7 to Sept. 5. Findings are summarized below. - Forty percent of the public believes that the quality of care in the United States has worsened in the past five years, compared with 38% who believe it has stayed the same and 17% who believe it has improved (May Yee, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/17). - About 55% of the public are dissatisfied with the quality of care, up from 44% four years ago (Bloomberg, 11/17). - Forty-eight percent of the public are concerned about the safety of medical care that they and their families receive (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/18). - Thirty-four percent of the public say that either they or a family member have experienced a medical error at some point.

Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)
November 18, 2004 Thursday
CITY EDITION
WORRIED SICK ON HEALTH CARE;
POLL SHOWS THAT NATION IS DEEPLY CONCERNED ABOUT QUALITY OF MEDICAL CARE
As state legislatures and Congress gear-up for another effort to reform medical malpractice laws, a national poll released yesterday suggests deep concerns exist among patients that the quality of health care across the country is worsening.
The study comes five years after an Institute of Medicine report showing hospital-based errors as the eighth-leading cause of death in the United States. The IOM study estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year in hospitals because of preventable medical errors.
Since then, nearly 80 percent of people polled said "the quality of health care has gotten worse" or stayed about the same, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation study issued yesterday.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
November 18, 2004, Thursday, Metro Edition
THE PRICE of MEDICINE;
The health industry is using openness and education to deal with medical errors.

In February 2002, Dr. Loie Lenarz, a physician at the Fairview Uptown Clinic, sat down with a bunch of medical charts to attempt to figure out why a once-healthy patient was showing a series of puzzling symptoms.
What she found chilled her.
It was a 14-month-old lab report that showed an abnormally high level of protein in the patient's urine, a signal of possible kidney disease. Lenarz had somehow missed that red flag. Meanwhile, the patient, an attorney in her 40s, had suffered months of persistent fatigue, swollen feet and high cholesterol.

The Washington Post
November 18, 2004 Thursday
Final Edition
Survey Shows Fear of Medical Errors
Americans are increasingly worried about dangerous -- even deadly -- mistakes in hospitals, but an overwhelming majority say the solution lies in easy-to-read, published safety report cards, not more medical lawsuits, a national survey released yesterday found.
Five years after the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a landmark report on widespread preventable deaths in U.S. hospitals, the new poll shows that confidence in the health care system has declined and pressure to reform it has grown.
More than half of the 2,000 adults surveyed said they are dissatisfied with the quality of health care, up from 44 percent in 2000. At the same time, 92 percent said reporting of medical errors should be mandatory, according to the poll, by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Harvard School of Public Health and the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Women's Health Weekly
November 18, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD.

Physician Law Weekly
November 17, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD.

Life Science Weekly
November 16, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD.

Newsday (New York)
November 16, 2004 Tuesday
ALL EDITIONS
Medical errors STILL CHRONIC;
Five years after a landmark study, patient safety remains in jeopardy
WASHINGTON
When Dr. Robert Wachter's wife underwent surgery in October to donate a kidney to a friend, her chief anxiety, he said, was "the possibility that she might be killed by a medical mistake."
She did fine, but Wachter, the chief of the medical service at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, says, "I didn't think she was paranoid at all."
Her concerns, like those of other patients, are a measure, he said, of the work the medical profession still faces five years after a landmark report warned that as many as 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors.

Physician Business Week
November 16, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD.

Science Letter
November 16, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD.

Health & Medicine Week
November 15, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD.

Managed Care Weekly Digest
November 15, 2004
MEDICAL ERROR;
World Health Organization targets medical mistakes
Citing statistics that 1 in 10 hospital patients worldwide are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, MD.

Tampa Tribune (Florida)
November 6, 2004 Saturday
FINAL EDITION
Hospitals Tried To Pre-Empt Malpractice Amendments

AORN Journal
November 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 124791533
Advocacy Day--in Washington and "on message"; Health Policy Issues
More than 100 AORN members and AORN Headquarters staff members attended the Public Policy Conference and Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, on Sept 20 and 21, 2004. The event featured presentations by spokespeople from the two major political parties' presidential campaigns and provided an opportunity for participants to go to Capitol Hill for face-to-face meetings with members of Congress and their legislative aides. This article provides a summary of the activities of those two days.
The event opened with greetings from Armando Riera, RN, BSN, CNOR, chair of the AORN Legislative Committee, and AORN President Bill Duffy, RN, BSN, MJ, CNOR. President Duffy reminded attendees that public policy advocacy and legislative activity are important ways of "celebrating our value," which is the theme of his presidency.
Burke Beu, AORN federal legislative analyst, reviewed state public affairs and AORN's legislative priorities, which are represented by the acronym KEYS.

Advanstar Communications, Inc.
Dermatology Times
November 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 128663535
Congressional clock ticking: have healthcare reform issues been placed on the backburner until 2005?Washington & You
Washington -- With lawmakers' attention turned toward the November elections, a number of key issues--including Medical practice and patient safety--appear to be headed for the back burner until the new Congress takes office in 2005.
Any hope of passing broad malpractice reform legislation died earlier this year after passage in the House of Representatives. It was torpedoed in the Senate, where trial lawyer influence helped prevent its passage. And, as this issue of Dermatology Times went to press, similar pressures appeared to be blocking a separate House-approved measure aimed at curbing frivolous lawsuits.

Modern Healthcare
November 1, 2004, Monday
Patient safety proves elusive; Five years after publication of the IOM's 'To Err is Human,' there's plenty of activity on patient safety, but progress is another matter

Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, Peoria, registered about five adverse events per 10,000 doses of medication before it mobilized all its doctors, nurses and information technology personnel to get that rate down. With a new chief executive officer at the helm in 1999, the 284-bed community hospital took seriously a challenge that had just been handed down by the Institute of Medicine in a shocking report on the prevalence of medical errors in U.S. healthcare titled To Err is Human.
After a year of piloting a new computerized system using bar codes at the bedside to check for accuracy in administering medication, the system went facilitywide in 2001. In one year, the rate of adverse events involving medications fell to 2.3 per 10,000 doses.
Methodist's results met the central goal articulated for the healthcare industry in that 1999 IOM report: a 50% reduction in errors in five years.

Jannetti Publications, Inc.
Nursing Economics
November 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 126446592
Creating safe spaces in organizations to talk about safety; Patient Safety

Executive Summary
A presentation was delivered at the 6th Annual National Patient Safety Congress in Boston (2004), and participants were encouraged to focus on methods to create safe spaces in their organizations to talk about patient safety, a precursor for a safety culture and the mainstay for understanding and continually enhancing patient safety. Key messages from that presentation were:
* The foundation of a culture of safety is trust. Clinicians, leaders, and employees must trust that a blameless and just culture is part of the organization culture.
* Assuring psychologically safe spaces to talk about patient safety advances systems of trust and community.
* Safety is a transient and vulnerable state requiring continual vigilance and dialogue.

Kane Communications, Inc.
Podiatry Management
November 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 126493170
Malpractice claims nationwide are declining; IN THE NEWS; Brief Article
There have been almost 400 medical malpractice complaints filed against Evansville, IN hospitals since the state began keeping records in 1978. More, uncounted, have been filed against Vanderburgh County's 500-plus physicians and its nurses, dentists, pharmacists, chiropractors, podiatrists and other healthcare providers.

Advanstar Communications, Inc.
Urology Times
November 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 128606521
Medical liability, patient safety bills stall in Congress: House-approved measure aimed at curbing frivolous lawsuits appears to be stuck in Senate.
Washington -- The results of this month's presidential and congressional elections will go a long way toward determining the fate of efforts to curb medical liability lawsuits and judgments, as well as the related issue of protecting patient safety.
Already doomed for 2004 is any hope of passing broad medical liability reform legislation, which passed the House of Representatives but was stalled in the Senate, where trial lawyer influence helped prevent its passage. And, as this issue of Urology Times went to press, similar pressures appeared to be blocking a separate House-approved measure aimed at curbing frivolous lawsuits.
At the same time, differing legislation passed by the House and Senate designed to help improve patient safety by reducing mistakes in health care settings appeared to be stuck waiting for action by a House-Senate conference committee.

Nursing Home & Elder Business Week
October 31, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week
October 30, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)
October 29, 2004, Friday
Health care providers to discuss patient safety issues at event
Discussions to include developing safety checklists, using new technology, and
reviewing medical errors Developing safety checklists, using the latest technological innovations and reviewing and discussing cases of medical error will be discussed today at a patient safety conference in Charleston.
The West Virginia Medical Institute, Charleston Area Medical Center and West Virginia Hospital Association are co-sponsoring the event. Speakers include Marcia Piotrowski, a nurse and clinical risk manager at the VA Ann Arbor Health Care System in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Surgery Litigation & Law Weekly
October 29, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors

HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

AAP NEWSFEED
October 28, 2004, Thursday
UK: World Health Organisation targets medical mistakes
WASHINGTON, Oct 27 AP - Australia is to join a new World Health Organisation initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care amid concerns that one in 10 hospital patients are victims of preventable medical mistakes.
"Improved health care is perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of the last 100 years," said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook. "Improving patient safety in clinics and hospitals is in many cases the best way there is to protect the advances we have made in health care."

The Washington Post
October 28, 2004 Thursday
Final Edition
Doctors Who Sleep More Err Less
Young doctors make far fewer mistakes when their hours are restricted to let them get enough sleep, according to the first study to directly examine the issue.
The study of 24 student doctors caring for seriously ill patients in a hospital found that those who were restricted to working no more than 16 hours without a break made about one-third fewer serious errors that could harm patients.
Since doctors-in-training provide much of the medical care in American hospitals, the findings suggest that current guidelines that allow interns and residents to work long hours without a break are endangering patient safety, the researchers concluded in research published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
"The tradition of working 30 hours in a row may be the Achilles' heel of the medical education system," said Charles A. Czeisler of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who helped conduct the research. "Our study challenges the notion that it's safe to deliver patient care under those circumstances."

Physician Law Weekly
October 27, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Cancer Weekly via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net
Cancer Weekly
October 26, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Life Science Weekly
October 26, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Science Letter
October 26, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

The Baltimore Sun
October 25, 2004 Monday HOWARD Edition
Medical files to get an upgrade;
Health-care data system will computerize records;
Critics concerned about privacy;
Multimillion-dollar project may reduce errors, cost;
Howard County
When an elderly woman walked into the Howard County General Hospital emergency room a year and a half ago suffering from extremely low blood pressure, Dr. Walt Atha had a hard time figuring out how to treat her.
The woman's medical records were not on file because she had never been to the hospital before. "I just had to throw the book at her," Atha said, explaining the various tests he performed before discovering she had a rare disorder called periodic hypokalemia that causes potassium levels and blood pressure to drop dangerously low.
"If I knew that," said Atha, "I would have immediately brought an endocrinologist on board."

Cancer Vaccine Week
October 25, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Cardiovascular Week
October 25, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Gastroenterology Week
October 25, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Health & Medicine Week
October 25, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

Managed Care Weekly Digest
October 25, 2004
HEALTHCARE COVERAGE;
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
HealthPartners, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans, says starting January 1 it will no longer cover certain medical procedures if they go wrong.
For example, HealthPartners said, it will no longer cover a surgery if an operation is performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, or if a foreign object is left inside a patient.
"It's about accountability," said George Isham, MD, medical director for HealthPartners. "We're sending the message that things that shouldn't happen shouldn't be paid for."

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
October 25, 2004 Monday
Bar codes add to hospital safety
Starting this week, patients who receive pills, intravenous fluids and other medication at Community Hospital will do so with a new safety net.
In an effort to reduce human error, Community soon will become the only hospital in Pasco County and one of the first in the Tampa Bay region to begin matching patients and their medicine using bar codes.
The idea is to create a higher comfort level for everyone. Hospital staff members hope the system will prevent problems with drugs that look alike or have similar names, among other worries.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
October 25, 2004, Monday, Metro Edition
Letters from readers
Trust Kerry on environment
J. Winston Porter's Oct. 21 opinion piece ("Kerry's environmental policies are a costly mishmash") attempts to confuse Sen. John Kerry's clearly pro-environment positions in a shell game of accusations that don't speak to the substance of his proposals.
As past articles in the Star Tribune have demonstrated, Kerry's track record is consistently pro-environment, and his proposals for the next four years carry that record forward.
President Bush, by contrast, has amassed a record of neglect and hostility toward environmental protection. It's no surprise that oil and gas industries alone have contributed nearly $2.2 million to his reelection campaign.

Las Vegas Review-Journal (Nevada)
October 24, 2004 Sunday FINAL EDITION
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM: Critical Condition
As Gina Greisen drove to the office of her gynecologist, she never thought she and her doctor would soon debate the U.S. Constitution in the examination room.
During her short drive, she did think about how close she felt to Dr. Florence Jameson.
'I remembered how my grandmother, my mother and me and also my daughter-to-be were once in her office together,' she said. 'My daughter showed up on a sonogram. We were so happy when Dr. Jameson pointed out my daughter inside me.' Soon after Greisen arrived at Jameson's office, however, her warm memories gave way to a new reality. A member of the physician's staff asked her to sign a document that carried a message in bold letters:
'BY SIGNING THIS CONTRACT YOU ARE AGREEING TO HAVE ANY ISSUE OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE DECIDED BY NEUTRAL ARBITRATION AND YOU ARE GIVING UP YOUR RIGHT TO A JURY OR COURT TRIAL.'

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
October 6, 2004, Wednesday, Metro Edition
HealthPartners to withhold payment for surgical errors
You wouldn't pay for a botched car repair, so why would you pay for botched surgery?
Starting Jan. 1, one of Minnesota's biggest health plans says it will no longer pay for certain procedures that go wrong. HealthPartners says it's basing its criteria on what is commonly known as a list of "nevers" - such as surgery performed on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient, and leaving a foreign object in a patient after surgery.
HealthPartners' move might be the first nationwide, and is certainly the first in Minnesota, to penalize health providers for bad care. These "never" events are rare, so the cost savings won't add up to much, but HealthPartners says this is just a first step.

Los Angeles Times
October 5, 2004 Tuesday Home Edition Commentary;
There Are Too Few Lawsuits, Not Too Many; Malpractice filings encourage better medical treatment.

Expect to hear all about it during the debates tonight, when Vice President Dick Cheney meets former civil litigator John Edwards: Junk lawsuits are ruining America.

For the Republicans, curbing medical malpractice and other "frivolous" suits are a key theme of the campaign. Four states will vote Nov. 2 on whether to enact legislation limiting such lawsuits.

But the truth is, there aren't too many civil lawsuits; there are too few. Take medical malpractice. The American Medical Assn. warns us that million-dollar jury awards and a flood of frivolous lawsuits are increasing the cost of doctors' insurance and creating a "full-blown liability crisis." But for every patient who sues, there are several who should but don't.

A 1990 Harvard University study found that only one out of eight patients who had a valid medical malpractice claim actually filed a suit. The study examined the records of more than 30,000 patients in New York -- one of the nation's most litigious states -- and discovered that in 1984 nearly 13,000 cases supported by "strong or certain evidence of negligence" were never pursued in court.

The Harvard study found that 3.7% of all patients suffered from complications caused by doctors. Later studies have found that number to be as high as 17.7%. Among the complications cited: the surgical removal of the wrong leg or kidney, brain damage to newborns and transplant procedures that didn't properly match donor and recipient.

In 2000, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine found that between 44,000 and 98,000 patients died every year because of mistakes made by doctors and other healthcare personnel.

Why so few suits, given such facts? Many patients don't know that it was negligence that caused their new problem. Others refuse to sue because they consider it human to err, or are grateful to a physician of many years for past care, or are fearful that they will be refused treatment if they do so.
Sadly, such a fear is far from groundless. A group of physicians in Texas launched a Web page that lists the names of patients, their lawyers and expert witnesses who testified in their support, implicitly threatening a treatment boycott against them and anyone else who hauls doctors into court.
But even if there aren't too many malpractice suits, aren't the high jury awards associated with those that are filed wreaking havoc? As it turns out, more than two-thirds of malpractice lawsuits are either dismissed or dropped before they can be settled or brought to trial, so no massive awards result. And when plaintiffs do prevail in malpractice, really large jury awards are rare and are often scaled back on appeal.
Granted, some people sue for no good reason. However, one can deal with such cases without punishing those who deserve compensation. Louisiana, for instance, has malpractice review panels made up of three doctors and an attorney who are responsible for ruling on the merit of claims. Patients who wish to file a suit first have to submit their cases to these panels. If a panel rules that the case is without merit, a plaintiff still may bring his or her suit, but the panel's report can be filed with the court. Thus such a ruling serves as a major deterrent to inappropriate suits.

Ultimately, the issue comes down to a question of balance.

Frivolous lawsuits of all stripes must be discouraged, but negligence should be punished. And we should be looking for ways to do everything more safely. For instance, the medical error rate could be reduced by reducing the number of hours interns work or improving access to computer programs that can help doctors detect dangerous drug interactions.

In the end, though, there are just two ways to encourage doctors, hospital administrators, HMOs and insurance companies to promote and pay for such reforms and programs. We could enact appropriate laws and allocate the funds to enforce them -- although this would be difficult considering the power of the medical lobbies and federal and state budget shortfalls. Or we could encourage malpractice lawsuits whenever there is just cause -- which would result in safer medical practices across the board.

Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
September 20, 2004, Monday
Rushed patients feel 'Wal-Mart blues'
Dear Savvy Senior: I've been seeing my doctor for years now and I like her a lot. She always does a great job and caught a couple of problems in the early stages - skin cancer, for example - that could have been severe. Lately, though, she seems much more rushed and less thorough. I noticed, too, that the waits are longer and there are more people in the waiting room. I told my husband that going to see our doctor anymore is like shopping at Wal-Mart on the weekend. It leaves me feeling exhausted and depressed. I'm just wondering, am I alone here, or have others noticed the same thing, and what can we do about it? - Exhausted and Depressed

The Tennessean
September 19, 2004 Sunday 1st Edition
High-tech health
Hospitals make innovations in record keeping, prescription safety, even add robots

So maybe Nashville doesn't have Robo Doc, the 200-pound, joystick-controlled experimental robot that has been roaming the halls of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for the past year or so.
But with all of the new technology installed by Nashville-area hospitals, we don't necessarily need it.
"In the four years that I've been here, we have really developed or deployed some of the most outstanding products that support electronic health information," said Nancy Lorenzi, acting chairwoman of the department of biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
And the rest of the nation appears to be noticing. Earlier this year, President Bush visited Nashville to see how our hospitals are innovating their way into the future of medicine.

The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
September 8, 2004 Wednesday
Final Edition
Finally, more data on hospitals' care

The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
September 7, 2004 Tuesday
Final Edition
Hospitals to divulge records of quality;
Information meant to give consumers better data for making decisions

Advanstar Communications, Inc.
Contemporary Pediatrics
September 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 123079110
Strengthening the physician-pharmacist link: everybody wins!Readers' Forum; Letter to the Editor

Between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths occur yearly from medical errors in the United States (1999, Institute of Medicine). Most medical errors are medication mistakes. MED-MARX (United States Pharmacopeia) found 105,603 medication errors in one year, with 190 resulting in injury. A large number of medication errors occur in pediatric patients, often because of a misplaced decimal point, an incorrect weight conversion, or even a wrong selection of medication.
One remedial action that has been suggested is greater physician-pharmacist cooperation. Such cooperation could reduce medication errors to an even greater degree if physicians would include three simple items on every prescription written--age, weight, and diagnosis.

Advanstar Communications, Inc.
Dermatology Times
September 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 127161087
Legislation will create system for voluntary medical error reporting; offers docs safe learning environment; Washington & You

Dermatologists and other healthcare providers are soon expected to have a formal mechanism for reporting medical errors and near misses without having to worry that the information will be used against them in a lawsuit.
Legislation designed to help improve patient safety by reducing mistakes in healthcare settings has a good chance of winning final approval by Congress before lawmakers adjourn for the November election. The measure is backed by the American Medical Association (AMA), the American College of Surgeons (ACS), and a coalition of some 130 healthcare specialty organizations, groups and experts. A House-Senate conference committee is preparing to reconcile slightly differing bills approved by the House in March 2003 and finally, by the Senate on July 23.

September 1, 2004, Wednesday
If the doctor's handwriting looks like squiggles, be careful.
MICROSCOPE ON MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE
KUALA LUMPUR, Tues. - If the doctor's handwriting looks like squiggles,
be careful.
The pharmacist may not be able to decipher it to get the right
medication for you.

Detroit News
August 18, 2004 Wednesday Two dot Edition
Big 3: Cut health costs;
Detroit automakers lobby Washington hard for reforms; medical tab reached $9.9B in '03

WASHINGTON ? Struggling under the weight of rapidly increasing health care costs, Detroit's automakers are pushing for major new reforms in Washington to squeeze savings from doctors, hospitals and drug companies.
The Big Three automakers spent $9.9 billion on health care benefits in 2003, far more than rival Asian and European automakers who benefit from nationalized health care plans.
"Rising health care costs are not just a huge burden for our families to bear," Rep. John Dingell told the Democratic National Convention last month. "They are a mighty drag on our economy. ... We've made cars in Detroit for a long time. And we still do. But I'm not sure how long that will last."

Consumer News
August 12, 2004
Study Finds Nearly 200,000 Deaths Annually from Hospital Errors
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/hospital_errors.html
An average of 195,000 Americans died annually in 2000, 2001 and 2002 because of potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors, according to a study of 37 million patient records conducted by HealthGrades, a healthcare quality company.
The "HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals" looked at the mortality and economic impact of medical errors and injuries that occurred during Medicare hospital admissions nationwide from 2000 to 2002.

Tulsa World (Oklahoma)
August 12, 2004 Thursday Final Home Edition
Medical records set for 21st-century transition
SAN FRANCISCO -- The federal government is trying to do for health-care records what it did for the early, national train system: Provide a common standard to keep business on track.
In the 1800s, trains operating on different-sized tracks would try to switch and failed until the government worked out a common standard, said Dr. James Rohack, chairman of the American Medical Association. Such a standard is missing in health-care records.

AORN Journal
August 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 120907674
Improving patient safety--how can information technology help?Patient Safety First

What once were considered safe places for patients (ie, health care facilities) have become potentially deadly. Despite increases in technology and medical knowledge, medical errors have become a major threat to patient safety. One of the key problems is that although a large amount of knowledge and information is available, manual, paper-based patient charts can hamper distribution and communication of important patient information. The answer to this problem may already be in the grasp of health care professionals, because information technology could be the key to minimizing medical errors and maximizing patient-centered care.
A NATIONAL CONCERN
One of the first principles of health care is to do no harm; however, in today's health care environment, patients are being harmed. According to reports by The Rand Foundation, the US health care system is "substandard," and medical errors are widespread. (1) In November 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, a report that says an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 deaths in US hospitals each year are caused by medical errors, which makes medical errors a leading cause of death in the United States. (2) The report also notes that these deaths cost approximately $ 8 million annually. (2)
The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics reports that one in 25 hospital admissions results in an injured patient. (3) In addition, approximately 180,000 unnecessary deaths and 1.3 million injuries occur from medical treatment in the United States. (3)

Center for Medical Consumers, Inc.
HealthFacts
August 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 120250320
Patient safety: still an elusive goal; RX News

More than 4,000 children may die each year because of unsafe hospital care, according to a recent study in Pediatrics. The researchers, led by Marlene R. Miller, MD, of Johns Hopkins Children's Center, reviewed 5.7 million records of patients under 19 years of age from 27 states who were hospitalized in the year 2000. Of the almost 52,000 children identified by the researchers as being harmed by unsafe medical care (including medical errors) during their hospital stay, 4,483 suffered a fatal injury. Miller and colleagues found that hospitalized children under one year of age and children on Medicaid were especially at risk. In addition to the children's suffering and the toll on their families, the authors calculated that the additional medical cost of treating children injured by unsafe care exceeds $ 1 billion a year.
This November will mark five years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued its report, To Err is Human, detailing the national epidemic of medical errors in hospitals. The IOM report estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 people of all ages die each year from medical errors in hospitals and the U.S. health care system was challenged to cut that number in half by 2005.

American Health Line
July 27, 2004 Tuesday
MEDICAL ERRORS: 195,000 PATIENTS DIE ANNUALLY, STUDY FINDS

An average of 195,000 patients die annually from
preventable hospital errors, according to a HealthGrades study
released Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports. For the
study, researchers examined data from 37 million Medicare
beneficiaries in all 50 states over three years (Davies, Wall
Street Journal, 7/27). Researchers looked for 16 types of
errors identified as important by the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality and estimated a national death rate based
on Medicare beneficiaries whose deaths could be attributed to
those types of mistakes (Allen, Boston Globe, 7/27). Data from
those beneficiaries were adjusted for age. The majority of
patient deaths were attributed to an error called "failure to
rescue," or mistakes in diagnosing or treating an illness that
occurs after an operation, such as pneumonia (Wall Street
Journal, 7/27). The study is the first to estimate deaths
caused by failure to rescue (Boston Globe, 7/27). Some say that
coding such errors is "both broad and subjective," which makes
it difficult to estimate the number of deaths they cause,
according to the Journal. Other leading causes of preventable
deaths were bed sores that led to infection; postoperative
infection; and postoperative embolism or respiratory failure,
the study says (Wall Street Journal, 7/27). The study is not
being published in a scientific journal but, rather is being
released as a promotion for HealthGrades' rankings services of
hospitals and physicians (Boston Globe, 7/27).

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
July 27, 2004 Tuesday SOONER EDITION
JEFFERSON HOSPITAL PRAISED AS A MODEL;
ONE OF FOUR CITED FOR EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE MEDICAL ERRORS

National studies of hospital performance often give high marks to big urban teaching hospitals, but a new report on quality shines the spotlight in a somewhat unusual direction: Jefferson Hills.
Jefferson Regional Medical Center is a national leader in efforts to improve patient safety, according to a report being released today by the Commonwealth Fund.
The hospital is one of only four being singled out for praise by the New York group, which conducted its study five years after a federal report found that medical errors were killing and injuring thousands of people each year.
The study isn't meant to provide consumer information about the "best hospitals," said Dr. Steve Schoenbaum, senior vice president with the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that supports independent research on health and social issues. Rather, the case studies of Jefferson and three other hospitals are being released at an American Hospital Association meeting today in hopes of getting others to follow the examples.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
July 27, 2004 Tuesday SOONER EDITION
FIRST, DO NO HARM;
AT LEAST 44,000 PEOPLE DIE EACH YEAR DUE TO MEDICAL ERRORS IN U.S. HOSPITALS

In 1987 Randy Shilts wrote "And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and The Aids Epidemic." Shilts documented the utter failure of the American health-care delivery system to manage the epidemic. In 1994, at the age of 42, Randy Shilts died of AIDS. He was a respected journalist with the San Francisco Chronicle, and his writings and public speaking went far to energize to action many leaders in the health-care delivery system, the medical research community and public service.
If he were alive today, Shilts might be writing about another scandal in the American health-care delivery system. Once again, and largely unrecognized by the American public, an epidemic of preventable hospital errors and deaths has been met with extraordinary indifference and apparent resignation. In 1999, the prestigious Institute of Medicine published "To Err is Human: Building A Safer Health System."

CBS MarketWatch
July 23, 2004 Friday
U.S. sets goals for making health records electronic
LEAD: SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - The federal government is trying to do for health-care records what it did for the early, national train system: Provide a common standard to keep business on track.
In the 1800s, trains operating on different-sized tracks would try to switch and failed until the government worked out a common standard, said Dr. James Rohack, chairman of the American Medical Association. Such a standard is missing in health-care records.

Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
July 22, 2004 Thursday
COMMITTEE: HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS
ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTIONS

Statement of Jonathan M. Teich, MD, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard University
Subcommittee on Health Committee on House Ways and Means
July 22, 2004
Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Stark, members of the Health subcommittee: thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I have spent much of the last fifteen years seeking out and inventing ways to use computer technology to make healthcare easier, better, and safer. In Washington and across the country, there has been increasing momentum for the use of health information technology, and electronic prescribing in particular, to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare. However, it has not yet realized its greatest value - and it is in your power to help it get there.

Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
July 22, 2004 Thursday
COMMITTEE: HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE
HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Statement of Robert M. Kolodner, M.D. Acting Chief Health Informatics
Committee on House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health
July 22, 2004
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am pleased to be here today to discuss the importance of electronic health records and the role of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the development, use, and sharing of this valuable technology.
Recently, President Bush outlined an ambitious plan to ensure that most Americans have electronic health records within 10 years. The President noted a range of benefits possible with the expanded use of information technology, including improved health care quality; reduced frequency of medical errors; advancements in the delivery of appropriate, evidence-based medical care; greater coordination of care among different providers; and increased privacy and security protections for personal health information.

USA TODAY
July 20, 2004, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
Health care's paper trail is costly route

Technology has cut costs and increased productivity in industry after industry.
But health care, a $1.6 trillion beast that wallops business and consumer pocket books more and more, still largely runs on paper.
Visits to new doctors require patients to fill out forms for the same old information. Getting test results from one office to another can take days. That often leads to duplicate tests, excess costs and poor care.

The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)
July 18, 2004, Sunday
ENSURING PATIENT SAFETY; ASSIGNING STAFF TO IDENTIFY WHERE, WHEN MISTAKES CAN HAPPEN IS KEY

LAKELAND
Preventing the medical errors that kill or harm thousands of patients a year in U.S. hospitals is one of the hottest topics in the medical world -- and at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.
Hospitals nationwide have put more emphasis on patient safety since the Institute of Medicine shocked patients and health workers alike by estimating in 1999 that medical errors cause between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths a year.
Concerns about wrong-site surgery, patients falling, dispensing the wrong medicines and anything else that could go wrong are getting an increasing amount of attention at LRMC, as reflected by the hospital's decision to bring in its first full-time patient safety officer in April.
Safety worries are why Dr. Glen Barden was taking no chances recently before surgery at LRMC. Before entering the operating room the veteran orthopedic surgeon lifted the hand of the elderly woman waiting for hand surgery and asked a series of questions, confirming her name and which body part he was to be operating on. He asked her name and confirmed he would be operating on her right thumb.

The Boston Globe
July 10, 2004, Saturday ,THIRD EDITION
ELECTRONIC ERROR TRACKING ON CALL AT HOSPITALS

Amid growing concern over medical errors, a number of hospitals in Boston and other cities are installing "near miss" systems, hoping to catch dangerous patterns before they hurt patients.
Most hospitals have surprisingly antiquated systems for tracking medical errors and near misses, which must be reported to the state if they involve serious injury or death to the patient. Typically, nurses report incidents by writing a lengthy description on a paper form. But the forms can be so time-consuming and the fear of reprisal so pervasive that few doctors participate. And because the reports are scattered on hundreds of pieces of paper, hospital executives sometimes can't see patterns, such as widespread fatigue or heavy workloads among staff.

THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW
SHOW: The Oprah Winfrey Show (4:00 PM ET) - BNO
July 8, 2004 Thursday
Outrageous medical mistakes; guests discuss what has happened while under the care of a doctor that has affected their lives

HOST: Oprah Winfrey
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ellen Rakieten
OUTRAGEOUS MEDICAL MISTAKES
OPRAH WINFREY: What you need to know before you go to any doctor. He woke up from surgery without his penis.
Can you believe this story?
For four days, doctors refused to deliver these twins.
Mr. GARY SUSSER: The only thing I could have done was pick up a knife myself to deliver these babies.

Business Week Online
July 7, 2004 Wednesday
A Paperless Health-Care System?;
At some hospitals, like Evanston North in Illinois, digital records are saving money and possibly lives. It's the start of an IT boom

Mark Neaman doesn't like pens, paper, and ink. He gets especially irked when he sees doctors or nurses using them in his hospitals. Neaman is the CEO of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. A 6,200 employee health-care provider with annual revenues of $1 billion and three hospitals and a research center in the Chicago suburbs, Evanston North is one of a small number of health-care institutions in the U.S. to go completely paperless. The $60 million project puts virtually ever process in the hospital online, from purchase orders and prescriptions to scheduling surgical bays and transcribing medical records. Even the foot-thick charts full of illegible physicians' scribbles are now neatly captured in electronic form.
The project took three years, finishing in late May. All three hospitals and 50 affiliated doctors' offices are now paperless. It's very early, but Neaman says the results are promising. Doctors now receive patients' mammogram test results in a single day, compared to a three-week wait before. Errors in transcriptions and prescriptions have fallen significantly. And late administration of medication to patients has dropped by 70%.

Healthcare Financial Management Association
Healthcare Financial Management
July 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 119615200
Sustaining a market-based healthcare system: as healthcare costs continue to soar, employers need to change the way they pay for their employees' health care; Commentary

AT A GLANCE
Purchasers of health care are not holding the healthcare system accountable for quality and cost. Employers need to:
* Offer their employees a wide range of choices in health coverage
* Earmark for employees' purchase a fixed dollar amount for health care set at or below the price of the low-priced plan
* Insist that carriers and providers report the quality of care delivered
America's healthcare system exhibits serious quality deficiencies and unsustainable expenditure growth.
The Institute of Medicine has documented that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die unnecessarily in hospitals as a result of medical errors. A RAND study found that Americans receive barely half the care recommended by national guidelines for a variety of common ailments.
In 2004, employer health insurance premiums will rise about 15 percent for the third consecutive year. There is little on the horizon to mitigate this growth. Average costs per employee will approach $ 7,500. Average family preferred provider organization (PPO) premiums will exceed $ 10,000. What is new and different now is the sheer size of the base on which these increases take place. Annual increases in healthcare expenses are challenging the affordable increases in total compensation, forcing employers to shift costs to employees, reducing employees' disposable incomes net of health care, or to drop health insurance altogether. This situation is leading to labor strife, disappointed employees, and painful decisions for employers.

Nelson Publishing
Medical Laboratory Observer
July 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 119445930
The laboratory approach to patient safety; Washington Report

Medical errors have a great impact on patient outcomes, since they can cause patients serious injury or even result in death. In 2000, in U.S. hospitals, medical errors were estimated to cause between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths annually, making preventable medical errors the eighth leading cause of death in the nation, with an estimated cost of $ 17 billion. Despite all efforts, it appears that the high quality of healthcare is not yet a universal reality; and further improvement is needed, as reported in the first National Health Care Quality Report, prepared by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, using a variety of national data sources.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
As part of the overall healthcare system, clinical laboratories are also vulnerable to medical errors. Considerable efforts were made by laboratory professionals and other stakeholders to decrease testing errors. Minimal quality requirements were set through regulations, both for laboratory testing and for manufacturing of safe and efficacious medical equipment and reagents. Also, nonregulatory approaches, such as laboratory standards, participation in various quality-improvement programs, voluntary reporting of adverse events, and introduction of successful approaches from other industries--like Six Sigma or Lean--have greatly impacted the quality of laboratory testing.

Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI)
June 24, 2004 Thursday, ALL Editions
CITY HOSPITALS AHEAD OF NEW RULES TO MAKE SURGERY SAFER

In a swamp of orange disinfectant on Wanda Milnamow's leg, the blue initials HJD stood out.
Milnamow, a 37-year-old office worker from Fort Atkinson, had written the letters on her skin an hour before her surgery at Meriter Hospital Wednesday -- they stood for Holly J. Duck, the orthopedic surgeon scheduled to replace Milnamow's dysfunctional right knee.
"If I were an artist," she'd quipped to nurse Audrey Langer, "I would have drawn a duck."

Drug Store News
June 21, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 118672231
Bush unveils e-health initiatives; Pharmacy Watch; United States president George W. Bush

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Citing the dangers and costs of an outmoded, paper-based system for storing patient records and writing prescriptions, President George W. Bush called for sweeping changes in the health care system through the adoption of information technology.
In a May 27 appearance at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Bush said the government would help fund the shift to electronic record-keeping. Information technology, he said, would transform health care, improve physicians' decision-making and eliminate many therapeutic and dispensing errors. "Within 10 years, we want most Americans to have electronic health care records," he said. "You can imagine what ... that will do. It will cut down the cost of paperwork. It will also cut down on medical errors.

PR Newswire
June 21, 2004 Monday
National Time Out Day Celebrates Adoption of First Universal Protocol to Prevent Errors in U.S. Operating Rooms

New Protocol Will Affect How Millions of Surgeries Are Performed
DENVER, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, nurses, surgeons and accredited hospitals throughout the country are being required to adopt a common set of operating room procedures in an effort to eliminate the alarming number of deaths and injuries due to wrong-site, wrong procedure and wrong person surgeries.

Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
June 17, 2004 Thursday
COMMITTEE: HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS
HEALTH CARE TECHNOLOGY

Statement of Robert M. Kolodner, M.D. Acting Chief Health Informatics Officer and Deputy Chief Information Officer for Health U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Subcommittee on Health Committee on House Ways and Means
June 17, 2004
Madam Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am pleased to be here today to discuss the importance of electronic health records and the role of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the development, use, and sharing of this valuable technology.
Recently, President Bush outlined an ambitious plan to ensure that most Americans have electronic health records within 10 years. The President noted a range of benefits possible with the expanded use of information technology, including improved health care quality; reduced frequency of medical errors; advancements in the delivery of appropriate, evidence-based medical care; greater coordination of care among different providers; and increased privacy and security protections for personal health information.

Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
June 17, 2004 Thursday
COMMITTEE: HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS
HEALTH CARE TECHNOLOGY

Statement of Janet Marchibroda Chief Executive Officer eHealth Initiative
Subcommittee on Health Committee on House Ways and Means
June 17, 2004
Madame Chairwoman Johnson, Congressman Stark, distinguished members of the Subcommittee, I am honored to be here today to testify before you on the role of information technology in improving quality, safety and efficiency in healthcare. My name is Janet Marchibroda. I am testifying today on behalf of the eHealth Initiative and serve as its Chief Executive Officer. I am also Executive Director of the Foundation for eHealth Initiative. Both are Washington, D.C.-based national non-profit organizations whose missions are the same: to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of health and healthcare through information and information technology. The eHealth Initiative's membership includes clinicians, employers, health plans, healthcare IT suppliers, hospitals and other healthcare providers, consumer groups, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, public health organizations, standards bodies, and academic institutions that have interests in improving healthcare through information technology. I also serve as the Executive Director of Connecting for Health, a public-private sector collaborative established by the Markle Foundation which receives additional funding and support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that is designed to address the barriers to development of an interconnected health information infrastructure.

BusinessWorld (Philippines)
June 11, 2004
FT-ACC-NO: A2004061159-8561-GNW
WEEKENDER: LABOR & MANAGEMENT
In 1999, a report made by the Institute of Medicine estimating that more than 44,000 people die every year as a result of medical errors has spawned several studies that put the spotlight on nurses as a safety net.
But it looks like results of these studies may have fallen on deaf ears because, five years later, a continuing demand for increased patient safety is still being heard from all sectors.

Birmingham News (Alabama)
June 7, 2004 Monday
VIRTUAL NURSING UA PROFESSOR DEVELOPS INTERACTIVE CD AS LIFE-LIKE TRAINING TOOL FOR NURSES

As a teacher and a practicing nurse, Angela Collins often saw new nurses who didn't know how to put their knowledge into practice.
The associate professor at the University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing decided to develop a tool to help future nurses make the jump from the safe academic world to the bedside and the life-or-death decisions they make there.
"I knew I had taught them these things, but they could not apply it to the real world," said Collins, also a nurse at UAB Hospital.

The Roanoke Times (Virginia)
June 7, 2004 Monday Metro Edition
CHECK OUT KERRY'S HEALTH PLAN

I'm serious. Here's John Kerry's plan for health care.
You'd think that a scant six months till the most important decision we, the voters, will be called upon to make in many decades, we would be studying the platforms on which the candidates should stand or fall. But the evolution of campaign information technology is going in the opposite direction. Charges and countercharges whiz past our heads in 30-second TV chunks.
Are we even in the mood to attempt such a study? The revolting news, complete with illustrations, coming out of Saddam Hussein's political prison, now under new management, may have killed our appetite for serious study. I think it may be possible. So here's a summary of the carefully thought-out plan to transform America's health care from the best that your money can buy to the best that America can offer everybody. If you're with me, let's go. It'll be worth your read.

Harvard Health Letter
June 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 117860920
Hospital report cards: Making the grade.

Will a click of the mouse replace word of mouth when it comes to picking a hospital?
These days, hospitals -- like students -- have to worry about getting a bad report card. Employer groups, health insurers, government agencies, and even newspapers are amassing mountains of data about them, crunching the numbers, and assigning scores and rankings. Several private companies have turned the collecting and assembling of hospital data for public consumption into a nice little business. Patients and their families are increasingly expected to act like savvy shoppers, making smart choices based on all this computerized wisdom.

PR Week (US)
May 31, 2004
SURGERY FIRM TAPS APCO FOR PATIENT EFFORT
CINCINNATI: Ethicon-Endo Surgery, a Johnson & Johnson company that makes surgical instruments for minimally invasive surgeries, has hired APCO Worldwide to launch a 'Smarter Patient' campaign.
Before undergoing surgery, patients are advised to ask five questions on such topics as alternative treatments, whether registered nurses will be part of the surgical team, whether disposable instruments are reused between patients, and the processes in place to prevent medical mix-ups (such as doctors administering the wrong medication).

FDCH Federal Department and Agency Documents
REGULATORY INTELLIGENCE DATA
May 27, 2004 Thursday
TRANSFORMING HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS
Today's Presidential Action
Today, President Bush visited Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss with doctors and patients his plan for health information technology to assure better delivery of health care for all Americans.
The President's budget for FY 2005 continues to support the use of health information technology by doubling funding to $100 million for demonstration projects that will help test the effectiveness of health IT and allow for widespread adoption in the health care industry. The use of health information technology will improve America's health care system and put the needs and privacy of the patient first.

Regulatory Intelligence Data
May 27, 2004
FT-ACC-NO: A200405287C-836C-GNW
TRANSFORMING HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS

Today's Presidential Action
Today, President Bush visited Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss with doctors and patients his plan for health information technology to assure better delivery of health care for all Americans.
The President's budget for FY 2005 continues to support the use of health information technology by doubling funding to $ 100 million for demonstration projects that will help test the effectiveness of health IT and allow for widespread adoption in the health care industry. The use of health information technology will improve America's health care system and put the needs and privacy of the patient first.
Challenges to the U.S. Health Care System
The U.S. health care system has a long and distinguished history of innovation, but at the same time faces major challenges. Failure to use health IT has resulted in high costs, uncertain value, medical errors, variable quality, administrative inefficiencies, and poor coordination. The Institute of Medicine estimates that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. Many more die or have permanent disability because of inappropriate treatments, mistreatments, or missed treatments in ambulatory settings. Studies have found that as much as $ 300 billion is spent each year on health care that does not improve patient outcomes -- treatment that is unnecessary, inappropriate, inefficient, or ineffective.

US Fed News
May 27, 2004 Thursday 7:24 AM EST
TRANSFORMING HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS

The following press release was issued by the White House:
Today, President Bush visited Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss with doctors and patients his plan for health information technology to assure better delivery of health care for all Americans.
The President's budget for FY 2005 continues to support the use of health information technology by doubling funding to $100 million for demonstration projects that will help test the effectiveness of health IT and allow for widespread adoption in the health care industry. The use of health information technology will improve America's health care system and put the needs and privacy of the patient first.
Challenges to the U.S. Health Care System

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
May 23, 2004 Sunday
Blue Cross pushes care data for consumers

Health care doesn't come up much in Economics 101.
In studying financial markets at work, economists assume consumers have at least some of the information they need to make smart choices. Combined with an individual's personal preferences, that information determines how and where consumers choose to consume.
That isn't the case with health care. Patients looking to find the doctor or hospital most able to fit their needs - physical and financial - find few sources of information. Most rely on word of mouth to make their decisions. Others find their choices trimmed by insurance plans.

The Asheville Citizen-Times
May 16, 2004 Sunday Final Edition
Judge physicians' work on standards set today, not those of two decades ago

Judge physicians' work on standards set today, not those of two decades ago
N
Ninety-eight thousand patients die from medical malpractice each year.
Three times in the last week I have seen that number in print. It was used once by the liability attorneys in our state to argue against malpractice and professional liability reform, once by the federal government in support of patient safety bills in the House of Representatives and Senate, and once by our regional managed care organization, the Crescent Preferred Provider Organization.
This number is used everywhere, but where did it come from? Its initial widespread use began when the Institute of Medicine released its study "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System" and was intended to shock Americans into awareness of the problem and demand some changes in our health-care system. They in turn borrowed it from the 1991 report of the Harvard Medical Practice Study.

The Jerusalem Post
May 14, 2004, Friday
Death by error

INTERNAL BLEEDING: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes By Robert M. Wachter & Kaveh G. Shojania. Rugged Land 441 pp. $ 24.95
There is a hidden epidemic in America - or so the authors of Internal Bleeding would have us believe. Doctors Robert M. Wachter and Kaveh G. Shojania, citing an influential 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, repeat a statistic which is as startling as it is misleading. Each year, between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die as a result of medical errors in hospitals - the equivalent, the authors are quick to point out, of a jumbo jet crashing every day.

Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
May 10, 2004, Monday
SAVVY SENIOR Second opinion can buy peace of mind

Dear Savvy Senior: Not long ago, I went to see my doctor about some ongoing problems with my back and he told me I had degenerative disc disease and recommended surgery. I was a little surprised but I think he knows what he's talking about. My wife, however, is insisting I get a second opinion before going under the knife. I told her I don't want to pay for an unnecessary medical visit, but she won't budge. Any thoughts? - Degenerated and Waiting

New Jersey Lawyer
May 3, 2004
Medical-error reporting:;
Bar groups at odds over impact

Advanstar Communications, Inc.
Dermatology Times
May 1, 2004
IAC-ACC-NO: 118278102
Medical errors reduced using electronic means; News
Seattle -- Reducing medical errors can be greatly facilitated by bringing state- of-the-art information technology into offices, clinics, pharmacies, and hospitals, according to Paul Tang, M.D. "The status quo is unacceptable," he said. "We can't manage the amount of paper we have now as healthcare professionals."
Medical errors came to the forefront of healthcare policy in 1999, when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System," the first in a series of reports that critiqued medical care in the United States and outlined strategies for improvement. The report estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 people die unnecessarily each year because of medical errors.

Health Data Management
May, 2004
Can You Keep Patients Safe While Reducing Costs?
A recent report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), entitled To Err Is Human: Building A Safer Health System, focused attention on the issue of medical errors and patient safety. The report indicated that, because of medical errors, there are as many as 44,000 to 98,000 patient fatalities each year.
The same report stated that the best way to decrease medical errors is to improve the systems used by health care providers. Ideally, anyone involved in the care of a patient should have immediate and complete access to that patient's entire history, as well as to pertinent treatment and pharmacological information. The effective use of technology not only reduces errors, it also improves the quality of care by giving healthcare professionals the tools they need to deliver quality care.

Health Data Management
May, 2004
A Holistic Approach to Improving Patient Safety
According to the Institute of Medicine, an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 patients die each year in U.S. hospitals due to medical errors, primarily adverse drug events.
To help address patient safety initiatives, healthcare organizations are focused on improving all of the ways that healthcare providers and patients interact.
At Siemens, we take a holistic approach to safety, addressing every point in the care process, from patient intake through evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment. By integrating medical equipment and information technology, our solutions support your workflow and help you achieve proven clinical outcomes.

Tulsa World (Oklahoma)
April 4, 2004 Sunday Final Home Edition
Readers Forum: The other side of tort reform
When our prisons become filled with criminals, as they are now, we don't conclude that our judges and juries have gone crazy or that our legal system needs fixing. We conclude that we have a serious crime problem and the legal system is doing its job.
Why then, have so many concluded that judges and juries have gone crazy or that our legal system is broken with respect to civil cases? The same judges who preside over criminal cases preside over civil cases; the jurors come from the same jury pools.
It is not logical or rational to jump to such a conclusion. The facts don't support such a conclusion. The facts tell us that judges and juries are doing their jobs and that the system is not broken.

PR Newswire
March 31, 2004, Wednesday
Washington Hospitals Reduce Rates of Surgical Infection
Eleven Washington state hospitals have worked for the last year as part of the Surgical Infection Prevention Collaborative Northwest (SIP NW) to reduce their rates of surgical infections, which are recognized as a major preventable form of patient injury, mortality and healthcare costs. The federal Institute of Medicine reports that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year from adverse medical events, as compared to about 45,000 deaths each year from auto accidents. Sixty-nine percent of adverse events and deaths are considered by experts to be preventable. Perioperative infections complicate an estimated 2.6 percent of nearly 30 million operations each year, resulting in roughly 780,000 surgical site infections. An estimated 40 to 60 percent of surgical infections are preventable with the appropriate use of prophylactic antibiotics. It's estimated that if a hospital with an annual surgical volume of 10,000 operations could reduce its 300 surgical infections by half, this would result in an annual cost savings of about $450,000. Proper administration of antibiotics has been a major goal of the SIP NW, along with other measures such as clipping, rather than shaving, the surgical site and maintenance of proper body temperature before, during and after surgery (normothermia). Qualis Health of Seattle, a nonprofit healthcare quality improvement organization, managed and provided technical and professional assistance to SIP NW participating Washington hospitals under a contract with Medicare. Participating Washington hospitals will convene with other hospitals from Oregon and Idaho to share their results at an "outcomes congress" April 2 in Seattle.

Business
March 29, 2004
CIO Survey -- Patient Safety Drives IT Spending
Clearly, improving safety is top of mind. Nearly half of the 307 CIOs responding to the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) survey said reducing errors and improving patient safety will be important IT priorities in the coming two years. HIMSS officials released their findings during their annual conference in Orlando, Fla. Always regarded as important, patient safety gained added notoriety following the release of an Institute of Medicine report estimating that anywhere from 44,000 to 98,000 patients die per year as a result of medical errors.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 28, 2004 Sunday Home Edition
Drug dispensing evolves; Heavy dose of high tech arrives
When an ob/gyn patient at Piedmont Hospital needs a medication, a nurse will deliver it, as always.
But before that happens, the doctor will have ordered the drug on a computer, and a pharmacy robot likely will retrieve it and drop it into a bin marked for the patient. Later the nurse on the floor will use a bar-code scanner to double-check that the right patient is getting the right drug, the right dose, at the right time.
This is health care catching up to the 21st century. With all the modern miracles it can produce, medicine has in some ways been stuck in old technology: prescriptions written in ballpoint, for example.

Gannett Company, Inc. USA TODAY
March 24, 2004, Wednesday, FINAL EDITION
Research counters furor over malpractice lawsuits
Frivolous and junk lawsuits are threatening medicine across the country, we are told. State legislatures from Maryland to Florida are considering legislation to address the problem. Malpractice premiums are skyrocketing, driving physicians out of practice. In some areas, lawsuits have forced so many doctors out that expectant mothers no longer can find obstetricians willing to deliver their babies.
At least that is what we have been led to believe.

The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
March 22, 2004 Monday FINAL Edition
Article urges reform to help hospitals learn from their mistakes; Doctors want facilities to get away from blame game, improve patient safety
To reduce the number of medical errors, hospitals need to fix what causes those mistakes. To do that, it stands to reason, they need to know about the mistakes.
And yet, it's estimated that only 5 percent of all mistakes are reported.

The Hearst Corporation The Times Union (Albany, NY)
March 21, 2004 Sunday THREE STAR EDITION
In their own words
EDWARD HANNAN Age: 60 Title/Company: Distinguished professor and chairman of Department of Health Policy, Management and Behavior at University at Albany's School of Public Health What you do there: Teach in the School of Public Health and conduct research on health care outcomes. Question: By the time Generation Y reaches middle age, how will health care be provided?
"Our country's health care system faces monumental challenges. In 2001, the total per capita health expenditure in the U.S. was $4,887, the highest in the world. The life expectancies for males and females at birth in the U.S. in year 2000 were lower than the life expectancies in 17 other countries. Countries with higher male life expectancies spent an average of less than $2,000 per capita on health care, 60 percent less than what we spent.

CMP Media LLC Computer Reseller News
March 8, 2004

Sagestone Has A Hand In Life-Saving Solution
An influential 2000 report by the institute found that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die from medical errors every year. Equally damning, the lag between the discovery of effective new treatments and the treatments becoming routine averages 17 years, according to a 2003 Institute report.
Dr. Joel Robertson, founder of the Robertson Research Institute, Saginaw, Mich., considers the situation untenable. That's part of the reason the physician, lecturer and author teamed up with solution provider Sagestone Consulting, Grand Rapids, Mich., to develop NxOpinion, which presents physicians with the most up-to-date diagnostic information possible.

Anchorage Daily News Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)
March 2, 2004 Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
PATIENT POWER; National groups and Alaska watchdogs encourage consumers to question health care providers
NEXT TIME YOU PAY A VISIT TO YOUR DOCTOR, ask questions.
Here's one to start with: "Did you wash your hands?"
Patients may take it for granted that doctors and nurses head to the sink before each exam, but local hospitals admit some of their employees don't. At one, a study showed that about a third of the staff wasn't washing up.
This new approach is a healthy self-defense for patients. It's a shift away from automatically trusting that the folks in scrubs and stethoscopes always do the right thing. This year, a national hospital accreditation agency gave consumers some muscle by creating seven National Patient Safety Goals that hospitals must meet (see list at left).

February 28, 2004 Saturday FINAL Edition
QUESTION OF THE MONTH; Would legal reform protect health care?
Will Maryland residents have to get used to not having access to the world-class physicians and hospitals that are part of what makes living here so special? This is the question that underpins the urgency of remedying our state 's medical liability insurance crisis.
The facts are clear: Liability insurance is exceedingly expensive for physicians, nurses, nursing homes and hospitals. Physicians are being forced to stop practicing medicine and consider moving to other states or retiring early, and the number of insurance companies willing to offer medical liability coverage is dwindling.
The rights of injured patients must, of course, be protected. But this can be accomplished together within the framework of the medical liability reform measures that are so important for the long-term health of the citizens of Maryland, the medical community and the hospital industry.

Business Wire, Inc. Business Wire
February 26, 2004 Thursday
Surgical Information Systems Launches New Alert System; First Alert System Integrated into a Surgery Management Product
Surgical Information Systems (SIS) introduces SIS Rules and Alerts - a totally unique innovation that's expected to provide a significant boost to patient safety, efficiency and productivity in the surgery department. SIS Alerts is the first, and only, real-time alert and rules-driven messaging system incorporated into a surgery information system in use today. It provides instant two-way, real-time communication of important case milestones, staff changes and potential medical errors. Integrated with a surgery management system, SIS Alerts ensures that important information, based on each individual facility's criteria and needs, is sent to the right staff people at the right time. Alerts, as they relate to Cases, Personnel and Events, can be communicated by e-mail, phone, wireless phone, pagers and PDAs.
SIS Case Alerts help reduce medical errors and improve patient safety. The technology compares data elements in a patient's surgical record to parameters and rules pre-set by the healthcare facility, instantly communicating potential errors. It allows mistakes to be discovered at the time of scheduling rather than during surgery. If a patient is allergic to latex, for instance, that information would be entered during pre-op, and all materials used in the case would automatically be checked for latex. Should a material on a procedure card contain latex, an Alert would automatically be generated.

Crain Communications Inc. Crain's New York Business
February 23, 2004, Monday
Human error treated with electronic therapy; Mistakes decreasing as hospitals increase spending on robotics, information systems
A cross between a small talking refrigerator with wheels and a feminized R2-D2, Montefiore Medical Center's pill-delivering robot, Patsy, has garnered so many fans at the hospital's nursing stations that she was covered with red roses this past Valentine's Day.
Her efficiency and ability to safely distribute medications for patients has won the love of Montefiore's administrators as well.
The $100,000 robot is just one example of several innovative ways that hospitals across the city are trying to reduce the risk of medical errors. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on computerized physician order-entry systems, or CPOE; sophisticated robotics for operating rooms, labs and pharmacies; bedside bar-coding technology; patient smart cards; and clinical information systems.

The Tennessean
February 18, 2004 Wednesday 1st Edition
Top-flight communication can help patients' health
A program created by pilots teaches Vanderbilt medical staff how to communicate the right information, right now.
By BILL LEWIS
Staff Writer
As doctors, nurses and other Vanderbilt University Medical Center caregivers quietly watched, a home movie from an Air Force base showed a giant B-52 bomber crashing and exploding into a ball of fire.
The highly experienced crew died while attempting a sharp turn that the eight-engine Air Force bomber was not designed to handle, but no one on board spoke up to stop the risky maneuver.
Another film showed an Air Force F-16 jet fighter being shot down by a surface-to-air missile during the first Gulf War as a pilot failed to respond to instructions barked over the radio by three others in his flight group.

The Cincinnati Enquirer All Rights Reserved The Cincinnati Enquirer
February 16, 2004 Monday Final Edition
Hospitals take aim at errors
Millions spent to avoid medication mistakes By Tim Bonfield
The Cincinnati Enquirer
At Bethesda North Hospital, nurses are training to use a $3.8 million system that runs IV medications through a machine that looks like a bank of oversized calculators.
At Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, a $640,000 medication mixing robot will be installed this summer to automatically prepare as many as 600 injections a day.
And this fall at University and Christ hospitals, a three-year program begins to encourage doctors to order medications via computer rather than handwritten slips of paper.
These and other hospitals in Greater Cincinnati are pumping millions of dollars this year into ways to reduce the number of deaths, injuries and treatment problems that can result from medication errors.

The News Tribune The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington)
February 15, 2004, Sunday
Healing justice; Power struggle over court rules diminishes priority of helping injured patients
Let's think radically for a moment about medical malpractice and tort reform - if only to clarify the issues. The struggle in the Legislature this year over litigation relief has focused on such traditional nostrums as a cap on jury verdicts for "pain and suffering" and the abolition of joint and several liability (which can put well-heeled defendants on the hook to pay large awards when they had little to do with the plaintiffs' injuries).
These measures aim to shift the balance of power from plaintiffs (injured patients and their attorneys) to defendants (doctors and their insurers) within the existing structure of tort law. For obvious reasons, physicians like them and trial attorneys loathe them. The Republican-controlled state Senate approved a doctor-supported tort reform package on Tuesday - but the provisions opposed by trial attorneys will almost certainly be rejected by the Democratic House of Representatives.
A question: Is this the argument we ought to be having?

FD (Fair Disclosure) Wire
February 3, 2004 Tuesday
QUADRAMED CORP at UBS Global Healthcare Services Conference - Final

LEAD: ROB KYLE, ANALYST, HEALTHCARE EQUITY RESEARCH, UBS: Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for coming. My name is Rob Kyle. I'm an analyst on UBS's Healthcare Equity Research Team, and it's my pleasure to introduce our next company, QuadraMed. And joining us from QuadraMed today, we're very pleased to have Larry English, who is Chairman and CEO of the company.
And with that, I'll hand the podium to Larry.
LARRY ENGLISH, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, QUADRAMED: Thank you very much, Rob. I thank UBS for the invitation and for all the trouble putting this kind of an event together. I'm really pleased to be here.

The Miami Herald
February 3, 2004, Tuesday
X marks the wrong spot in medical errors
MIAMI _ A diabetic Tampa, Fla., man checked into the hospital to have his gangrenous right foot amputated, and woke up without a left leg. A 17-year-old girl died at Duke University after receiving a heart and lung transplant from a donor with the wrong blood type. A young breast cancer patient died after receiving an overdose of chemotherapy drugs at Boston's world-renowned Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
These are the cases that made headlines.
But they're symptoms of a far more insidious problem, assert patient safety experts, who blame a system that's quick to point fingers at the doctor for injuries and errors but fails to fix the steps that can break down along the way. Indeed, up to about 98,000 U.S. deaths a year are due to medical errors _ more than car accidents (estimated at 43,000 in 2002) or breast cancer (40,000 in the same year), a landmark study found.

Richmond Times Dispatch
February 2, 2004 Monday City Edition
Doctors Seek Protection from Suits/ Proposal Would Put a New Cap on Awards for Pain and Suffering
Crises over tort reform, like some rare orchid, bloom every several years in the halls of the Virginia General Assembly.
Just enough time seems to elapse between blooms for legislators to forget that they supposedly fixed the problem last time around.
The real problem, though, is eternal: money.
Tort is a legal term of French origin that implies injury. Tort reforms have always focused on controlling how much money injured people should receive from physicians and the hospitals who hurt them. Insurance companies foot the bill.

Consultant
February 1, 2004
The 10 most common prescribing errors: tips on avoiding the pitfalls.
ABSTRACT: Numerous factors contribute to the medication errors that kill up to 98,000 patients each year. Unnecessarily high dosages can result in increased side effects with only a small therapeutic benefit, especially in elderly patients. Lack of patient information--such as a history of allergies or adverse drug reactions--is another cause of error and injury. Communication failures include the use of ambiguous abbreviations, misinterpretation of verbal orders, and lack of timely response to a patient's medication-related symptoms. Dosing errors are common in children because of variability in dosage expressions in drug references. Remedies for prescribing errors are described in detail here.
**********
Medication errors are a significant cause of injury and expense. An Institute of Medicine report estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 persons die in US hospitals annually as a result of these errors. (1) This report fueled dramatic interest in health care reform, including measures to reduce medication errors. (2)
A medication error is a preventable event that could result in inappropriate therapy or harm to a patient. (3) Although errors occur frequently during various steps in the drug treatment process (ie, prescribing, interpreting, dispensing, and administering), they infrequently lead to harm. (4) As a result, investigation has focused on errors that result in harm.

Journal of the American Association
February 1, 2004
Avoiding medical errors: JCAHO documentation requirements; The Business of Dietetics
When Q.D., Latin for "once daily," is misinterpreted as Q.O.D., "every other day," the results can be deadly. In today's hospitals and other health care settings, abbreviations, seen as useful shortcuts when writing prescriptions or documenting in the medical record, can lead to misunderstandings that can result in misdiagnosis, improper medication dosage, or even death. Medical errors occur in 2.9% to 3.7% of hospital admissions (1), (2). A recent Institute of Medicine report showed that between 44,000 and 98,000 patients die each year because of medical errors (3). Many of these errors involve misunderstood abbreviations: U.S. Pharmacopeia's MEDMARX system received 2,356 reports of errors specifically related to abbreviations in 2002--and that was just from 482 reporting hospitals (4). Sherrie Borden of U.S. Pharmacopeia says that those numbers are probably low, since errors tend to be under-reported.

Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
January 22, 2004, Thursday
Faulty medical devices can pose patient hazard; Devices are the focus of medical study
In addition to medication mistakes, problems caused by medical devices can pose a hazard to patients' health, according to a study by the University of Utah School of Medicine, LDS Hospital and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Problematic devices include everything from faulty prosthetics to insufficient glue used in hip replacements to broken hospital beds.
The study, published in Wednesday's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first of its kind to evaluate computer-based surveillance techniques to identify and estimate the number of patients who have bad experiences with a medical device.

American Health Line
January 14, 2004 Wednesday
Medical Errors: Massachusetts Opens Patient Safety Center
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Monday opened a center that will educate health care providers about medical error prevention and coordinate patient safety efforts by state and private health agencies, the Boston Globe reports (Dembner, Boston Globe, 1/12). The Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Prevention, named after a Boston Globe columnist who died from a chemotherapy overdose, will operate this year on $200,000 in state funds from the 1998 national tobacco settlement (Ray, AP/Long Island Newsday, 1/12).

The Boston Globe
January 12, 2004, Monday ,Third Edition
Push for Patient Safety Honors Writer
More than nine years after Boston Globe health columnist Betsy Lehman died from a chemotherapy overdose, state officials will memorialize her today by opening a center dedicated to reducing medical errors.
The long-planned center is designed to coordinate patient safety efforts by state and private health agencies and to educate health-care providers about the best ways to prevent errors. It will be located in the Department of Public Health and headed by Nancy Ridley, an assistant commissioner who has worked extensively on patient safety.

The Tennessean
January 7, 2004 Wednesday 1st Edition
EDITORIAL
Type out that prescription
Computerized prescriptions look like just what the doctor ordered.
Vanderbilt researchers are on to what should become a valuable medical tool, entering prescriptions into computer systems rather than writing them out the old-fashioned way. It appears to reduce errors dramatically, and the practice should save lives.

Biotech Business Week
January 5, 2004
DERMATITIS: Gloves help improve skin, relieve dermatitis
Cardinal Health (CAH) has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market an advanced new line of medical gloves made with Neu-Thera, an emollient that is proven clinically to improve skin health and protect hands from irritation.
The gloves are the first to be manufactured with a proprietary formula that protects, restores, moisturizes, and soothes hands.
Repeated washing, scrubbing and gloving by physicians and nurses can cause dry and irritated hands. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that healthcare workers select products containing emollients to lower the risk of irritant contact dermatitis (Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings, October 2002.) Skin irritation, according to the CDC, is one reason clinicians don't adhere to recommended hand hygiene guidelines.

The Tennessean
January 5, 2004 Monday 2nd Edition
Computerized ordering cuts medication errors
VU study finds system superior to doctors' writing
By Sameh Fahmy
Staff Writer
Handwritten prescriptions in hospitals probably will become as antiquated as black-leather medical bags in coming years, a trend that researchers predict will save lives by reducing medication errors.
"It's going to lead to a safer environment (for patients) and a more efficient environment in the interaction between physicians, pharmacists and other health-care providers," said Dr. Neal Patel, a pediatric critical-care doctor at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.
Patel and his colleagues authored a study appearing today in the journal Pediatrics that shows that a computerized prescription-ordering system at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital nearly halved the number of errors that, if not caught by a pharmacist or nurse, could have harmed patients.
In 1999 a report by the congressionally chartered Institute of Medicine estimated that medication errors kill 44,000-98,000 people annually. The group recommended that hospitals eliminate handwritten prescriptions and other medical information by the end of the decade.

The Washington Post
January 5, 2004 Monday Final Edition
Invest in Educational Research
Recently, to considerable fanfare, the director of the National Institutes of Health, Elias Zerhouni, unveiled a $2 billion, five-year plan to "turbocharge " NIH's research program. The plan calls for promoting collaboration across disciplinary boundaries, speeding the translation of research-based knowledge into improved health care practice and recruiting community practitioners to undertake larger clinical trials.
To far less notice, a National Academy of Sciences panel recently proposed a similarly bold plan to restructure and re-energize educational research -- an area that is arguably at least as important as medical research to the nation's future and its citizens' well-being. The Strategic Educational Research Partnership (SERP) proposal calls for locating educational research in schools and recruiting practitioners as partners to ensure more practice-relevant questions and faster dissemination of promising findings. It also proposes establishing cross-disciplinary research teams to link those who understand biology or mathematics with those who understand how they should teach, how children learn and how schools operate.

Information Management Journal
January 1, 2004
Doctors, hospitals advised to keep records electronically; Up front: news, trends & analysis
According to the Washington Post, about 10 percent of physicians' offices, and even fewer hospitals, now use electronic medical records exclusively. But a recent report suggests this is not good enough.
In "Patient Safety: A New Standard of Care" the Institute of Medicine called for hospitals and doctors to adopt electronic recordkeeping systems that would prevent tens of thousands of fatal medical errors annually and form the foundation for a nationwide exchange of patient information among practitioners and medical facilities. .

.Institute of Medicine Report.