CT Center for Patient Safety Newsletter

September 2013

In This Issue

Introducing Lavinia Cristescu

State Innovation Model

Imaging - Doctors Who Profit

Hospital Compare

Consumers United for Evidence Based Healthcare

Healthcare Lobbying Tab in CT

Our fall intern.
Quinnipiac senior, Lavinia Cristescu, who will be getting a masters in health administration will be interning with us as we expand our patient story base. When numbers are translated into individual experiences, it makes all of the difference!

Lavinia, welcome aboard.

Quick Links

VISIT OUR WEBSITE

SIM: State Innovation Model

CT Center is one of 24 organizations asking Lieutenant Governor Wyman to include independent consumer advocates into the planning for payment reform that will part of our implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

We are asking that:

1. Reforms are phased in to first build an effective quality monitoring system to identify quality performance.

2. There is an open and public discussion among all stakeholders, and that includes independent consumer advocates, to consider all possible option about how a fair and transparent payment system could be constructed.

3. Quality care, cost controls and protection of the consumer are the starting points of planning.

We want to assure that savings are not generated by sacrificing quality of care, and that no incentive dollars should be paid to providers that do not meet meaningful - not minimal - quality standards.

I am bringing this to your attention because so much in healthcare reform is dense public policy that is not readily understandable to those making decisions and to the healthcare consumer. We will try to keep you up to date, but please visit our website as the state unrolls its healthcare reform.

Dear Members,

"Incrementalism is the tranquilizing drug of gradualism" Martin Luther King

Those of us who have been working in patient safety and improving the quality of care viscerally understand what Dr. King was saying.

In 1999 when the Institute of Medicine report substantiated the pervasive harm that occurred in our delivery system, there was widespread disbelief and then attacks on the methodology of the study and denial that it was happening within specific hospitals - it was happening elsewhere. Today we have general acknowledgement that our current delivery system can harm in the many ways we have learned over the years. We know that every instance of harm translates into suffering for a person and his or her family.

While the industries so inefficiently making up our delivery system are beginning to address the acknowledged problem, it is still incrementalism. We need action now. Addressing one problem, such as central line infections in the ICU, does not mean that care is safe. We need patient centered quality care to begin now.

Soon is not a time

Some is not a number

Someone needs a first and last name.

Transparency and accountability can speed speed up this incrementalism that is allowing providers to think they are doing enough. They are not.

Jean

Imaging

In 1980 there were 3 million CT scans ordered. In 2007 there were over 70 million. That translates into 5,000 future cancers. A recent New York Times article, Doctors Who Profit from Radiation Prescribe it More Often reported on a study undertaken by the Governmental Accountability Office that looked at treatments for patients with prostate cancer. The investigators found that beneficiaries are often unaware that their doctors stood to profit from the use of radiation therapy. Alternative treatments may be equally effective and less expensive. In other recent studies, the auditors found a similar pattern when doctors owned laboratories and imaging centers.

Hospital Compare

http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare

Should you need hospitalization, take advantage of this rich source of information.

Consumers United for Evidence Based Healthcare

Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare(CUE) is a national coalition of health and consumer advocacy organizations committed to empowering consumers to make the best use of evidence-based healthcare (EBHC). CUE, organized in 2003 when the US Cochrane Center invited advocacy groups to join a consumer advocate-scientist partnership, is a pioneering effort to improve consumers' ability to engage in and demand high quality healthcare.

Healthcare Lobbying Tab in CT

The CT Mirror recently published an article highlighting the lobbying tab in CT for 2012.

Special interest groups spent $39.7 million in 2012 to lobby state lawmakers with

"the number one issue lobbied last year: health and hospitals, health care systems medical organizations"

CTCPS is making sure that the patient's voice, your voice, is heard. This is what we are up against! Please support us in our efforts and donate today! No amount is too small and every dollar donated allows our voice to become louder and stronger!

Thank you for your generous support of the CT Center for Patient Safety. You are making a difference.

Visit our website www.ctcps.org. We are making it easy for you to financially support our hard work.