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Healthcare Leaders to Address Patient Safety and Reform at the National Patient Safety Foundation Congress, Washington, DC, May 20-22

Posted on: Monday, 18 May 2009, 07:00 CDT

MEDIA ALERT

WASHINGTON, May 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Focusing on critical healthcare reform efforts and best practices essential to reducing preventable adverse events, and responding to President Obama's bold principles for change, influential leaders will gather at the National Patient Safety Foundation Congress this week to discuss the fundamental shifts necessary to keep patients safe and strengthen the quality of care.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080307/AQF053LOGO)

The Administration's newly-released principles for Transforming and Modernizing America's Health Care System include a key mandate to improve patient safety and care. A decade after the seminal Institute of Medicine report To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, and despite a determined focus across healthcare, multiple tens of thousands of Americans still die each year as a result of unintended adverse events, including healthcare associated infections. The personal toll is devastating, and the economic impact, estimated at upwards of $26 billion annually, is staggering.

In tandem with the Administration's calls for dramatic change in healthcare, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently announced Recovery Act resources designed to support critical patient safety efforts, stating that "the status quo is unsustainable."

Program Highlights:

IOM Report Retrospective and the Decade Ahead

This expert panel will feature distinguished members of the Lucian Leape Institute, including a number of architects of the To Err Is Human report, and will provide a retrospective on accomplishments in patient safety in the ten years since the release of this pivotal publication. With this foundation of knowledge, these leaders will then discuss and identify the opportunities for change within the system and how to best accomplish these life-saving goals.

• Janet Corrigan, President and CEO of the National Quality Forum
• Dr. Lucian Leape, Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health
• Dr. Donald Berwick, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Dr. Carolyn Clancy, Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• James Conway, Senior Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Dr. David Lawrence, Chairman and CEO (retired), Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
• Julianne Morath, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• Dr. Dennis O'Leary, President Emeritus, The Joint Commission
• Paul O'Neill, former Chairman and CEO, Alcoa, and 72nd Secretary of the U.S. Treasury

Health Policy Reform: The Unfinished Business of the Baby Boom Generation

The Honorable John Kitzhaber, MD, Governor of Oregon (1995-2003) will discuss the critical importance of shifting the national debate from how we pay for healthcare to what we are buying; how care is organized and delivered; and what return on investment we are getting in terms of health. He will also examine the key design elements of a new system and the steps we need to take to achieve the goals of health policy reform.

Patient Safety: Reaching for Transformational Change in Challenging Times

Alan Aviles, President of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), the largest municipal hospital and healthcare system in the country, will detail how HHC has been transformed by implementing a clear and determined plan to deliver safe, efficient, patient-centered care. Despite funding and resource limitations, HHC has maintained a core focus on patient safety and achieved acclaimed results, providing a model of practical guidance during these challenging economic times.

A complete listing of participants is available at www.npsf.org.

The 2009 NPSF Patient Safety Congress, attended by over 1200 healthcare professionals, will be held at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland (just outside Washington, DC), on May 20-22.

About the National Patient Safety Foundation:

The National Patient Safety Foundation is an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that has been diligently pursuing one mission since its founding in 1997 -- to improve the safety of the healthcare system for the patients and families it serves. As the widely recognized voice of patient safety, NPSF is unwavering in its determined and committed focus on uniting disciplines and organizations across healthcare, championing a collaborative, inclusive, multi-stakeholder approach. From transformative strategic initiatives to tactics, tools, and vital information resources, NPSF defines and develops groundbreaking programs designed to accelerate positive change and drive forward the patient safety mission.

SOURCE National Patient Safety Foundation

Source: PR Newswire

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