InDepthNH.org series on Medical Errors in NH Hospitals
Part 1: Serious Medical Errors Plague NH Hospitals
Part 2: Disagreement On How To Stop Serious, Preventable Medical Errors in NH Hospitals
Part 3a: Doctor’s in the House: Tips on Staying Safe in the Hospital
Part 3b: How To Become Your Own Patient Safety Advocate in NH
Part 3c: Telling Noah’s Story to Stop Medical Errors in NH Hospitals
Patient Safety Awareness Week is March 13 to 19 so it is a good time to become your own patient advocate. There is a great deal of information online specific to New Hampshire hospitals. You can compare hospital procedures’ costs and quality. There are also many national patient advocate websites. Listed below are some information from those websites.
1-NH Healthcare Associated Hospital Infections reports are listed on the NH Department of Health and Human Services website. 129 Pleasant Street | Concord, NH | 03301-3852
A healthcare?associated infection (HAI) is an infection that a patient acquires during the course of receiving treatment for another condition within a healthcare setting. An estimated 722,000 HAIs and 75,000 associated deaths occurred in United States acute care hospitals in 2011. In 2014, a total of 219 HAI were reported in NH hospitals, representing 124 surgical site infections (SSI), 27 central line?associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), and 68 catheter?associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). The observed number of HAI in NH hospitals was 15% fewer than predicted based on national data.
2-Adverse Events Report in NH hospitals are listed on DHHS’s website.
3-NH HealthCost
NH HealthCost provides New Hampshire residents a tool to compare estimated health care costs based on actual prices paid for medical and dental services in the state by insurance plan and by procedure including MRIs, dental cleanings, and Cholesterol tests. It also provides an estimate for uninsured patients. All cost information provided on this site is derived from data collected from New Hampshire’s health insurers and stored as a part of the Comprehensive Health Care Information System (NHCHIS). More information about the NHCHIS can be found here: https://nhchis.com. NH HealthCost also provides you with a convenient way to see nationally available quality data on local health care facilities.
4-National Patient Safety Foundation
The National Patient Safety Foundation’s vision is to create a world where patients and those who care for them are free from harm. A central voice for patient safety since 1997, NPSF partners with patients and families, the health care community, and key stakeholders to advance patient safety and health care workforce safety and disseminate strategies to prevent harm. Address: 262 Summer St, Boston, MA 02210, Phone:(617) 391-9900
5-The Leapfrog Group: to compare hospital scorecards and specific information about safety issues like infections, how they manage medical errors, ICU staffing. If your hospital isn’t listed, it means it does not report. The Leapfrog Group, 1660 L Street NW, Suite 308, Washington, DC 20036, Telephone: 202-292-6713,Fax: 202-292-6813
6-The Empowered Patient Coalition
The Empowered Patient Coalition is a consumer and advocate-led effort to inform, engage and empower the public to assume a greater role in their own medical treatment and in becoming a driving force for meaningful health care reform. Survey: A patient-initiated voluntary online survey of adverse medical events: the perspective of 696 injured patients and families,
7-AHRQ: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Phone: (301) 427-1104
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used.
8-Hospitalcostcompare
On May 8, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicade released data showing what over 3,000 U.S. Hospitals billed Medicare for the top 100 Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) along with what Medicare actually reimbursed. This data represents over 163,000 individual price points across the U.S. and shows wildly different rates for the same procedures. HopsitalCostCompare.com allows you to drill down through the specific data to see how your local Hospital compares and see how much the same diagnosis costs around the country.