Patient Advocate Calls for Creation of National Patient Safety Board

A patient safety advocate is calling for the creation of a National Patient Safety Board to protect the rights and safety of medical patients.

In an interview with West Health, John T. James, who is the founder of the website Patient Safety America, said that such an organization could be similar to the National Transportation Safety Board or the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and should be controlled by leaders in the patient safety movement.

“The goal of such an agency would be to discover, track and analyze medical errors, and where appropriate, enforce changes – all in a completely transparent way,” James said in the interview. “The well-known limitations and secret-keeping of state medical boards and hospital accreditation organizations would become history.”

The National Patient Safety Board would also enforce a national bill of rights for patients, James said. Violating those patients’ rights would be as serious as civil rights violations or falling short of standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

James, a former chief toxicologist for a federal agency, has dedicated his life to patient safety and a safer health-care system since the 2002 death of his son due to medical errors.

In the West Health interview, James estimated that 444,000 lethal medical errors occur each year, including hospital-acquired infections.

He said disparities in how patient information is collected and stored endanger patients.

“I believe that interoperability between medical records is essential to improve patient safety,” James said in the interview.

He also said the greatest impact for reducing patient harm will come from putting programs in place that allow patients to make informed decisions about physician and hospital quality.

James called for 360-degree performance reviews for all clinicians in the hospital setting that would include feedback from nurses, other doctors, and service leaders, and for hospital caregivers to complete a job-satisfaction survey, with the results made accessible to the public.

“The 360-degree reviews and job-satisfaction reviews would have to be administered by an agent not associated with the hospital or any of the doctors working there,” he said in the interview. “It has to be a source of data the patient can trust.”

If you or a loved one has been harmed by a medical error, schedule a free consultation with the Seattle malpractice lawyers at Morrow Kidman Tinker Macey-Cushman, PLLC, by calling us or contacting us online.