Patient Safety: President Clinton to appear at 1st Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit

Former President Bill Clinton is slated to headline a roster of healthcare experts at the 1st Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit next year.

The event, sponsored by Masimo‘s (NSDQ:MASI) Foundation for Ethics, Innovation & Competition in Healthcare and MassDevice.com, is scheduled for Jan. 13-14 in Laguna Beach, Calif. Physicians, hospital administrators, medical device companies and patient advocates will address 3 key areas in reducing the estimated 200,000 preventable deaths in U.S. hospitals each year: Failure to rescue, medical errors and overuse of red blood cell transfusions.

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"Far too many patients suffer preventable harm including receiving care that is disrespectful and undignified," Dr. Peter Pronovost, SVP for patient safety & quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine,s aid in prepared remarks. "Too often the safety of patients relies on the heroism of clinicians rather than the design of systems. We need to design a healthcare system that eliminates all types of preventable harm; and to do so, clinicians must partner with patients, their families, and technology companies."

One problem is connectivity between the medical devices in a hospital room. For example, patient-controlled analgesic pumps for powerful narcotics aren’t linked to respiration monitors, even though a known side effect of the drugs is respiratory depression.

"We’re excited to help gather some of the most passionate advocates of humanity to focus on tangible, actionable recipes for advancing patient safety. The goal is to have zero preventable deaths in hospitals. Attendees will leave with action plans to tackle and eliminate the 3 challenges discussed above," Masimo CEO Joe Kiani, chairman of the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation & Competition, added in a prepared statement. "We hope through President Clinton’s challenge, and encouragement of the world-renowned speakers from Dr. Joshua Adler to World Health Organization special envoy Thomas Zeltner, the health care industry will begin a new level of cooperation to help every patient go home safely after their hospital procedure is over."

According to the foundation, the 3 major challenges to patient safety are:

• Failure to Rescue: "Too many deaths and permanent disabilities are a result of complications that were not recognized and properly treated in a timely manner. These tragedies could be avoided if hospitals improved processes and implemented systems that facilitate patient safety,
  " according to a press release.
• Medical Errors: "A leading cause of death in the United States, medical errors are preventable adverse events or effects of care, the vast majority being due to faulty systems and poorly designed processes versus poor practices or incompetent practitioners," according to the release.
• Overuse of Red Blood Cell Transfusions: "The most frequent procedure performed in U.S. hospitals – with 1 in 10 inpatients receiving 1 or more units – RBC transfusion rates and practices are highly variable by institution, procedure, and physician. Yet studies show transfusions can increase mortality by 69% and morbidity by 88%, while restrictive transfusion practices have been proven safe in multiple randomized controlled trials."

President Clinton is expected to join other patient safety stakeholders including:

• Dr. Joshua Adler, Chief Medical Officer of UCSF Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, and Medical Director of UCSF Ambulatory Care
• Dr. Richard Afable, President & CEO, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian
• Richard Boothman, Chief Risk Officer, University of Michigan Health System
• David Classen, CMIO, Pascal Metrics, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Utah, Active Consultant in Infectious Diseases, University of Utah School of Medicine;
• Michael Cohen, President of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices
• Nancy Conrad, founder of the Conrad Foundation and Spirit of Innovation Challenge
• Peter Cox, Clinical Director, Critical Care Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children
• Dr. Charles Denham, Chairman, Texas Medical Institute of Technology; Chairman, Global Patient Safety Forum
• Dr. Michael Henderson, Chief Quality Officer, Cleveland Clinic Health System
• Andreas Hoeft, Director, Dept. of Anesthesiology & Intensive Care Medicine, University of Bonn Medical Center
• Joe Kiani, Founder, CEO & Chairman, Masimo Corp.
• Dr. Narender Kini, President & CEO, Miami Children’s Hospital
• Dr. Peter Pronovost, SVP for Patient Safety & Quality, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Director, the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality
• Dr. Michael Ramsay, Chairman, Dept. of Anesthesiology, Baylor University Medical Center; President, Baylor Research Institute
• Dr. Keith Ruskin, Professor of Anesthesiology & Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine
• Dr. Howard Schapiro, Chairman & Health Care Service Leader, Dept. of Anesthesiology, University of Vermont/Fletcher Allen Health Care
• Dr. Aryeh Shander, Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, Medicine & Surgery, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
• Dr. Nathaniel Sims, Cardiac Anesthesiologist & Physician Advisor to Biomedical Engineering at Massachusetts General Hospital; Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School
• Dr. Bob Stoelting, President of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation
• Dr. Andreas Taenzer, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology & Pediatrics, Director of Pediatric Acute Pain Service, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
• AkkeNeel Talsma, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing; Research Investigator School of Medicine; RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholar Alumni; Director of Perioperative Outcomes Initiative at the University of Michigan
• Dr. John Ulatowski, Professor & Chairman of the Dept. of Anesthesiology/Critical Care Medicine; Vice President and Executive Medical Director of Johns Hopkins Medicine International at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Thomas Zeltner, Special Envoy of the Director General of the World Health Organization in Financing; Former Secretary of State for Health and Director-General of the Federal Office of Public Health, Switzerland