Leading Patient Advocate Argues "Quality control is Cost Control"

In an article that takes on the patient safety issue from a cost argument, Jamie Stevenson, vice president of the Consumer Health Quality Council, writes: "Our health care needs to become safer. The good news is we all can take a role in improving the system. Quality improvement and cost control cannot be separated. Medical errors cost the nation $17 to $29 billion each year.

Quality control is the best form of cost control."

Among the sobering statistics (many located here), according to the Institute of Medicine, medical errors injure nearly one million Americans each year during their hospital stay, and among those injured, nearly 100,000 patients die as a result.

In Massachusetts alone, the New England Healthcare Institute estimates one in every 10 Massachusetts patients suffers an avoidable medication mistake. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five inpatient hospital admissions results in a hospital-acquired infection.

 Further advocating for more transparency, Stevenson implores:

"The public has a right to know whether a hospital is struggling with a problem such as infections. Armed with the necessary information, patients and families can make truly informed decisions and participate in improvement efforts. Healthcare transparency is about creating openness, honesty and truth-telling in healthcare."

Full article located here.