Patient Safety Series Presenter Notes….3.30.25
Hello Healthcare Consumers and welcome to The Gary and Jay’s Healthcare Insider, the program that tries to help “Make healthcare easier to understand and navigate.” We are committed to making healthcare personal.
Today’s program: WHAT IS OUR PATIENT SAFETY GUIDE AND HOW TO USE IT
I’m Gary and I’m Jay and we will be hosting today’s program.
- We are not Clinical people.
- We are experienced in the Business of Healthcare with over 50 years of combined experience.
- We bring an Insiders view of how healthcare works.
- Our goal is to share our knowledge with consumers.
GP: Career in spans managing hospital and physician revenue cycle operations
that include:
Pt Admission, Precertification, Ins verification, billing and medical collections
JH: Chief Financial Officer for several large healthcare systems. In this role I came to understand Medicine is both a profession and a business. Like any business costs, convenience, and customer satisfaction are all very important. The healthcare business environment continues to change. Unfortunately there are many varying vested interests in the healthcare system trying to protect the status quo that sometimes put the patient/customer at risk. Our program is intended to help patients navigate these risks.
Here we go with today’s program: WHAT IS OUR PATIENT SAFETY GUIDE AND HOW TO USE IT
JUST TO RECAP: There are as many definitions for patient safety as organizations focused on improving patient safety. For our purposes today, we’ll use the World Health Organization’s definition:
“Patient safety is the absence of preventable harm to a patient and reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with healthcare to an acceptable minimum.”
INTODUCTION TO THE PATIENT SAFET GUIDE
The typical healthcare consumer, at some point in time, will have a negative experience with or navigating the healthcare process. Healthcare Experiences include but are not limited to; Financial and Patient Safety. The consumer lacks a basic understanding of the healthcare system. This is a deadly combination that creates consumer frustration and, at times, Medical, Financial and Patient Safety Risks.
Healthcare Consumer Navigator Center is your healthcare partner helping consumers navigate the healthcare maze. Patient Safety is clearly a risk that most consumers rarely think about.
This guide is designed to educate and help consumers understand Patient Safety.
Why a Focus on Safety?
As Reported By: Institute for Healthcare Improvement
The World Health Organization estimates that 134 million adverse events occur each year due to unsafe care in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, resulting in some 2.6 million deaths. Additionally, some 40 percent of patients experience harm in ambulatory and primary care settings with an estimated 80 percent of these harms being preventable, according to WHO.
Some studies suggest that as many as 250,000 to 400,000 deaths occur in the United States each year as a result of errors or preventable harm. Not every case of harm results in death, yet they can cause long-term impact on the patient’s physical health, emotional health, financial well-being, or family relationships.
Preventing harm in health care settings is a public health concern. Everyone interacts with the health care system at some point in life. And everyone has a role to play in advancing safe health care.
IHI works with partners around the world to improve the safety of health care for patients, caregivers, and the health care workforce.
WHAT INFORMATION IS CONTAINED IN THE GUIDE
The Guide to Navigate Patient Safety is designed to help the healthcare consumer to:
- Understanding Patient Safety
- What are healthcare consumer rights and responsibilities
- Navigating the Patient Safety Maze
- Check Lists and Tips for the Healthcare consumer to follow
The Guide Table of Contents:
YOUR PATIENT BILL OF RIGHTS AND RESPONISBILITIES
HOW TO FIND PATIENT SAFETY PROVIDER RATINGS
ESTABLISHING YOUR PERSONAL MEDICAL RECORD
MEDICAL MALPRATICE
CHECK LISTS AND TIPS FOR MANAGING PATIENT SAFETY
The following is a brief summary of what information is included in the Guide:
YOUR PATIENT BILL OF RIGHTS AND RESPONSILITIES: Patient Bill of Rights is a document that provides patients with information on how they reasonably expect to be treated during the course of their medical care. It is intended to provide goals and expectations for patient care.
HOW TO FIND PATIENT SAFETY PROVIDER RATINGS: Safety Rating can help the consumer determine whether their healthcare provider is giving quality care.
ESTABLISHING YOUR PERSONAL MEDICAL RECORD A health record (also known as a medical record) is a written account of a person’s health history, including appointment notes, prescriptions, treatments, tests, and vaccines. It’s also for people who need the record of someone they represent or care for, like a child, elderly parent, or an adult with a disability.
MEDICAL MALPRATICE Knowing about Medical Malpractice Damages may help you decide if you want to legally pursue damages if you believed you were harmed.
CHECK LISTS AND TIPS FOR MANAGING PATIENT SAFETY
Healthcare Consumer Navigator Center with the below listed organizations are providing consumers with valuable information to ensure their safety.
Patient Safety Check List By Kimberly French
Tips for Making Shared Decisions About Your Health Care..NPAF
Tips for Getting Reliable Information About Your Illness…NPAF
Tips for Discussing Difficult Topics…NPAF
About ConsumerMedSafety.org…Tips for Consumers for Taking Medication.
Patient Safety Action Network (PSAN)
TAKE AWAYS
- The guide is an all-inclusive document about Patient Safety
- Review the guide to understand what is included in the guide
- Use all or part of the guide as needed
- We suggest you review the guide prior to any medical care you are going to receive
HCNC is your healthcare partner that offers healthcare consumers information to navigate the healthcare maze via our website.
The program and take away information of the program will be available on our website www.healthcareconsumernavigatorcenter.com.
This concludes our program OUR FIRST PATIENT SAFETY PROGRAM, and we hope the program explained PATIENT SAFETY and has answered some of your questions.