Transcript view a presentation on your right as a patient to safety.

Medical Errors and Patient Safety
44 E. Mifflin St., Suite 103
Madison, WI 53703
608-257-5741
www.watl.org
Today 40% of Americans say the
quality of health care has gotten
worse over the past five years.
We need Health Care Reform
Health-care premiums have soared almost 60%
in the last 4 years.
 Wisconsin workers have seen premiums rise
49%, while wages have crept up only 12.2%.
 We now have 45 million uninsured Americans
 Each day more than one jumbo jet full of
people die as a result of medical errors; that’s
as many as 195,000 Americans annually.

The reason?
According to the insurance
industry it’s …
Frivolous Malpractice
Lawsuits
Their solution
Attack patients’ rights and limit
injured patients and their families
right to hold bad medical
professionals accountable
The real facts:
 Malpractice
costs account for only 40 cents
out of every $100 spent on Wisconsin
healthcare.
 From September 1990 through December
2002, an average of only 101 people per
year in Wisconsin received compensation
for injuries caused by medical negligence,
ranking 49th of the 50states.
With such low costs, the medical
industry has invented a new cost
“black hole”
Defensive Medicine
The facts
 some
defensive medicine is good medicine
 managed care discourages bad defensive
medicine
 doctors do defensive medicine because they
make money from defensive medicine.
The real issue
“How do we lift the quality of
medical care and reduce
serious medical errors and
thus malpractice claims?”
Hidden Epidemic
Problem of Massive Proportions
As many as 195,000 Americans
may die in hospitals due to
medical errors
6th leading cause of death in the US
More than the death toll from
automobile deaths, AIDS, or breast
cancer
1 jumbo jet crash a day
What causes medical errors?
 Surgical
errors
 Improper medications
 Mix-up in patient identities
 Wrong diagnosis
 Delay in Treatment
 Object left inside a patient during
surgery
Children, in particular, are at
risk of losing their lives due to
medical errors.
An estimated 4,000 children die each
year because of medical errors
The public cost of medical errors
$17 - $29 billion
each year
Barriers to Patient Safety
 Understaffing
 Poor
Monitoring
 Repeat Offenders
 Doctors rarely admit mistakes
 Weak Medical Discipline System
 Artificial limitations on compensation for
harm
How do we restore patient safety
and accountability?
 Individual
vigilance and advocacy.
 Shine sunlight on problems.
 Sufficient staffing and adoption of
programs to prevent medical errors.
 Wake up the disciplinary watchdog.
 Protect your right to your day in court.
 Let juries, not legislators, decide what
injured families should recover.
Medical errors are the elephant in
the room that no one wants to
acknowledge or talk about
Conclusion
 Medical
errors harm our citizens
 Medical errors are preventable
 The public must police the medical profession, if
the medical profession won’t police itself
 Closing the courthouse doors rewards bad conduct
 We need to hold bad medical professionals
accountable
 Real reform regulates the insurance industry,
HMOs and corporations and benefits, doctors,
small businesses and individuals
Demand your right
to patient safety