Our Positions

  1. First, Do No Harm.

We believe in the principle of “First, Do no Harm”. This principle is followed by most healthcare providers, especially those who are passionate about their job. As patient safety advocates, we strongly support healthcare providers who provide compassionate, competent, and safe care to their patients.

We also believe that any doctor who repeatedly injures patients needs to be reviewed by state medical boards to see if their practice meets the professional standard.  Failure to meet the standard should result in a licensure action in order to protect the public.

  1. Patient-Centered and Collaborative Care.

We believe the patient is the most important member on his/her medical team.  Only the patient knows how they are feeling and can communicate it to the care team.  The medical professional should not force their personal preferences onto their patients.  The patient is the only person who has the right to make the final decision and the medical professional needs to respect, accept, and support the patient’s decision.

  1. Informed Consent.

For any medical treatment, we believe a doctor or other medical professional involved must provide the patient with options for the treatment including the option to do nothing.  All risks and benefits must be provided to the patient in writing and the patient should sign that he/she has received the information.  A patient has the right by law to make an informed decision, but can only do so if the patient has been completely and thoroughly informed of all the risks and benefits.

  1. Team Care and Communication.

We support team-based medical care where each person on the team has an equal responsibility in providing safe and effective treatment to a patient and where each team member can openly express their concerns without any risk of retribution or derogation.  One excellent team care program is being taught under an AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) program called TeamSTEPPS:(http://www.ahrq.gov/teamstepps/index.html)                           The University of Washington, School of Medicine is currently teaching TeamSTEPPS through their WISH Program:  https://wish.washington.edu/about-wish

According to Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, communication errors account for over 70% of all serious preventable medical harm. We strongly believe that an effective team communication is crucial to deliver safe and quality care to patients.

  1. Preventable Medical Harm, Reporting Errors, Transparency, and Accountability.

A recent study shows that each year up to 440,000 people die from preventable medical harm in the United States. This is equivalent to two jumbo jets crashing and killing everyone on board every day, making the preventable medical harm the 3rd leading cause of death in America.

Concerning these unacceptable medical errors, we support healthcare facilities that are working hard to reduce medical errors, and we strongly support a transparent error reporting system because it is impossible to correct what is not measured, documented, and then share the lessons learned.  All errors need to be reported to the proper agency along with an analysis of how the error occurred and what is being done to not repeat the same error again.  If a medical professional repeatedly harms patients, the state medical board needs to remove this person from practice.  If a facility allows medical errors to occur repeatedly, the state agency that oversees medical facilities needs to take necessary license actions.  All providers’ profiles should be transparent to the public, including all history of disciplinary actions, privilege actions, criminal conviction, and malpractice settlements.  There should also be a way that the public can appeal a state board’s decision.  If a doctor or a facility has been sanctioned, it should be required that they inform all their patients of the sanction along with what they are doing to correct the problem.

  1. When A Medical Error Occurs.

We believe patients have the right to be informed about the adverse medical events when they occurred.  The patient and the family also need to be offered financial compensation without being forced to accept any gag order which would prevent them from speaking up about the even that led to harm.   The error needs to be documented, analyzed, and any lessons learned shared, so that this error will not be repeated again.  This information needs to be made public so that other medical professionals will learn from the lesson.  We believe the patient or his insurance should not have to pay for the original procedure where the error occurred or any follow up procedures to correct the error or any required continuing treatments due to the error.

  1. FDA’s Duty to the Public.

The FDA should not allow any drug or device to be used on people without rigorous testing and evaluation.  Any fast tracked medical product that has not been rigorously tested should be so labeled and this information must be transparent and clearly communicated to any patient who is considering using the item.

  1. Off-label Medical Products.

Off-label means to use a drug or device for a purpose other than what it was intended or approved to be used by FDA. This means that the drug or medical device has not been tested for it effectiveness for that condition.  At present, it is legal for doctors to use medical products off-label without informing the patient.  We are strongly against such practice.  For any off-label use, it must be required to inform patient and the additional risks associated with safety uncertainty.  Any and all documentations on using the off-label products must be provided to the patient so that the patient can make an informed decision.

  1. Medical Records.

We believe all medical records should be open and transparent to the patient.  Each time a patient sees a doctor, whether at his/her office or in a hospital, the patient should be provided with print-out report on the visit, what was discussed, and what was recommended.  All records should be labeled as draft until the patient reads them, provides any corrections, and signs them.  Both the patient and the provider should be allowed to come back to edit the records until they are signed off by both parties.  We believe this process is important because it protects the integrity of medical records through collaborative efforts between patients and their healthcare providers.

    J. Recording of all encounters with medical providers.

We believe that patients should have the right to record all encounters with medical providers.  This would provide several benefits:

  1. It is very hard to remember all the advice and recommendations made by the provider. With a recording, the patient and the family can listen to it later at home to remind themselves of the important advice.
  2. It would provide a record or exactly what information was communicated by the provider to the patient, which could provide legal protection to both parties later if needed.
  3. It would provide a record or exactly what information was communicated by the patient to the provider, which could provide legal protection to the provider later if needed.

 

Last update: 12Nov2023