Report on Healthcare Reform Submitted to The Obama-Biden Transition Team

Tell It Like It Is! - Health Community Discussion
Chicago, IL - January 5, 2009

Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) and CQPS announced today the release of their report submitted to the Obama-Biden Transition Team and Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle. The target audience for this Health Community Discussion were key stakeholders in greater Chicagoland who already are active in the patient safety and quality improvement change work. Those stakeholders include among others, healthcare organization leaders, patients and family members, consumer advocates, employer representatives, physicians and other clinicians, state and county government representatives, educators and other advocates for transformation of healthcare.

The report stresses the importance of making patient safety - or the elimination of unintended harm caused by errors, omissions or other avoidable failures of the organizations and systems where patients are treated - a priority as Senator Daschle and the Obama-Biden administration take on healthcare reform.

Preventable harm is a well recognized public health epidemic, estimated by the Institute of Medicine to be the 4th to 8th largest cause of preventable death in the United States. Today in the United States a patient can have an excellent surgical outcome after a highly complicated operation, only to be killed by infection caught in the hospital. Patients with serious illnesses can be accurately diagnosed and successfully treated, but have the benefits of this excellent care undone by taking the wrong medication, or the right medication in the wrong dose.

"Tell It Like It Is! - Health Community Discussion" is one of several small, local gatherings in which thousands of Americans are sharing thoughts and ideas about reforming healthcare in the United States. President-elect Obama and Senator Daschle are counting on Americans from every walk of life to help identify what's broken and provide ideas for how to fix it.

Click here to download the report submitted.

Mitchell L. Dvorak, MS, CAE
Executive Director
Consumers Advancing Patient Safety

UPDATE! January 15, 2009

The evaluations we collected at the Jan. 5 discussion event expressed a strong interest in having more opportunities for feedback on the pressing issues facing healthcare. Ask and you shall receive!

Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of the Transition Team, sent out a notice Jan. 14 announcing a new feature on their www.change.gov website, which enables us to bring our healthcare reform ideas directly to President Obama. It's called the Citizen's Briefing Book, and it's an online forum where you can share your ideas, and rate or offer comments on the ideas of others. The best-rated ones will rise to the top. After the Inauguration, the Transition Team will print them out and gather them into a binder like the ones the President receives every day from experts and advisors. If you participate, your idea could be included in the Citizen's Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama.

We're a diverse community, but all with an interest in advancing patient safety. We encourage you to take the time to share your thoughts and experiences with the Transition Team. Let's make sure patient safety is a core priority for healthcare reform.

Visit the Citizen's Briefing Book now and share your ideas