Patient Safety Resources

Consumers throughout America are supposed to be treated fairly and honestly. Unfortunately, many companies seek to maximize their profits by cheating their customers. Others make unsafe products that injure or even kill consumers. Many Hospitals and physicians refuse to accept responsibility for their mistakes, hoping that their patients will not be well informed or knowledgeable enough to know who to turn to when something goes wrong.

Sometimes litigation is the right avenue to pursue. Sometimes it is not. At the Mishkind Law Firm we are here to help you, whether it is to offer free advice or to direct you to the appropriate governmental agency so that justice can be done. If litigation is the best avenue to pursue we will advise you accordingly and will take all appropriate steps to protect you and your family.

The Mishkind Law Firm Co., L.P.A., has the experience to hold those responsible for injury, harm and death accountable. We also know that the best way to keep patients safe is to improve on the quality of medical care. Change is good but it often times comes slowly and reluctantly. Saying I am sorry and explaining how something went wrong can go a long way to limiting lawsuits and to improving the overall quality of health care.

We hope that the consumer safety information that we will provide on our website will help make you and your family a more educated medical consumer. Knowledge is key and you should not feel as if you don't have rights. You do!!

Far too many hospitals, insurance companies defending doctors and hospitals, and corporations see bad outcomes as something that will happen, and if they can avoid getting caught they can keep the cost of business down. When an injury fractures your life or your loved ones life a huge corporation should not get away with "murder." Every professional owes its customers and patients a duty to act reasonably and patients should not become victims when hospitals, nursing homes and corporations make mistakes.

Please review the patient safety resources below, information on informed consent issues and true stories of patients' medical misadventures.

Before you have surgery, what should you ask your doctor or surgeon? Here are some resources to use.

Be Informed: For the online version of the new publication, Having Surgery? What You Need to Know, go to: http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/surgery/surgery.htm

Your Guide to Choosing Quality Health Care — Developed by Agency for Health Care Policy and Research to help you make health care decisions using information about quality. The Guide is based on research about the information people want and need when choosing health plans, doctors, treatments, hospitals, and long-term care. These are the major decisions most people face at one time or another during their lives-either for themselves or for a loved one.

State Medical Board of Ohio — Board Mission: "To ensure that citizens of the state have access to safe care, the Board regulates physicians (M.D.s and D.O.s) and acupuncturists. The Board licenses and disciplines practitioners under its jurisdiction in accordance with state law and administrative rules." Use the for consumer tab to research your doctor and learn about his/her education, licensure, board disciplinary actions and more.

American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) — Search to determine if your doctor is board certified. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), a not-for-profit organization comprising 24 medical specialty boards, is the pre-eminent entity overseeing physician certification in the United States. ABMS' mission has been to maintain and improve the quality of medical care by assisting its Member Boards in developing and implementing educational and professional standards to evaluate and certify physician specialists. ABMS is recognized by the key healthcare accreditation organizations as a primary equivalent source of board certification data on medical specialists for credentialing purposes.

American Medical Association – Doctor Finder — Provides basic professional information on virtually every licensed physician in the United States, including some 690,000 doctors. AMA member physician listings offer additional information such as office hours, accepted insurance providers, educational history and other helpful information.

American Osteopathic Association (AOA) – Doctor Finder — Member association representing more than 56,000 osteopathic physicians (D.O.s). Serves as the primary certifying body for D.O.s, and is the accrediting agency for all osteopathic medical colleges and health care facilities.

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) — Independent, not-for-profit organization, established more than 50 years ago. JCAHO is governed by a board that includes physicians, nurses, and consumers. Sets the standards by which health care quality is measured in America and around the world. Evaluates the quality and safety of care for more than 15,000 health care organizations. To maintain and earn accreditation, organizations must have an extensive on-site review by a team of JCAHO health care professionals, at least once every three years. The purpose of the review is to evaluate the organization's performance in areas that affect your care. Accreditation may then be awarded based on how well the organizations met JCAHO standards.

View the Joint Commission's most recent Sentinel Event Alert. A sentinel event is an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof. Serious injury specifically includes loss of limb or function. The phrase, "or the risk thereof" includes any process variation for which a recurrence would carry a significant chance of a serious adverse outcome. Such events are called "sentinel" because they signal the need for immediate investigation and response. Learn more about sentinel events and the reporting process.

Health Grades — Independent healthcare ratings organization, providing ratings and profiles of hospitals, nursing homes and physicians to consumers, corporations, health plans and hospitals. Find quality ratings of the nation's 5,000 hospitals and 16,000 nursing homes as well as in-depth profiles of the nation's 650,000 physicians.

Reduce Your Risk of Medical Errors

20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors — Medical errors are one of the Nation's leading causes of death and injury. A recent report by the Institute of Medicine estimates that as many as 44,000 to 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as the result of medical errors. This means that more people die from medical errors than from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. Government agencies, purchasers of group health care, and health care providers are working together to make the U.S. health care system safer for patients and the public. This fact sheet tells what you can do.

20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors in Children — Medical errors are one of the Nation's leading causes of death and injury. Rates of medication errors and adverse drug events for hospitalized children were comparable to rates for hospitalized adults in a 2001 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. However, the rate for potential adverse drug events was three times higher in children, and substantially higher still for babies in neonatal intensive care units. Studies of medical errors outside the hospital are just getting underway. This fact sheet is intended to help parents help their children avoid medical errors.

Quick Tips-When Talking with Your Doctor — Research has shown that patients who have good relationships with their doctors tend to be more satisfied with their care-and to have better results. Here are some tips to help you and your doctor become partners in improving your health care.

Your Medicine: Play It Safe — You can learn more about how to take medicines safely by reading this guide. It answers common questions about getting and taking medicines and has many handy forms that will help you keep track of information. Keep this guide with your medicines in case you have any questions, concerns, or worries. This guide was developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Council on Patient Information and Education (NCPIE).

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — The Federal Government has taken an active interest in improving health care and in making sure that all patients are protected. We urge you to visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services web site for valuable information on Medicare and Medicaid issues that are of vital importance.

Never Events — Since 2006, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services has refused to
pay for complications related to certain medical mistakes. These mistakes, so-called "never events," should never occur if routine safety measures are implemented. The list includes wrong site surgery, leaving surgical supplies inside patients and medication errors. It is important to recognize that the list of "never events" identifies common, easily definable medical errors; this list is by no means complete. In fact, most medical errors involve complicated medical issues at work in the setting of a unique patient. The Institute of Medicine has estimated that up to 98,000 Americans die each year because of preventable medical errors. In addition to deaths, there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of devastating injuries from medical errors that should have never happened.

The National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC) contains syntheses of selected guidelines that cover similar topic areas. Key elements of each synthesis include the scope of the guidelines, the interventions and practices considered, the major recommendations and the corresponding rating schemes and strength of the evidence, the areas of agreement and the areas of disagreement.

The following Guideline Syntheses are available on the NGC Web Site and are extremely valuable when it comes to screening and prevention of various diseases.

Patient Safety Resources

Before you have surgery, what should you ask your doctor or surgeon? Here are some resources to use.

Reduce Your Risk of Medical Errors

Cleveland Medical Malpractice Attorneys Video