Patient Care

Imagine a health care system where preventable harms no longer occur. Where technology is connected and systems talk to each other. Where doctors, nurses, patients and families work as a team and decisions about health care are shared. Imagine a health care system that is so finely tuned it can eliminate preventable harms, cut health care costs and give patients and families the voice and care they deserve.

We imagine this. And, we believe it can be a reality.

Despite many efforts to improve health care, one in three people suffer from a preventable medical harm while in the hospital, and more than 400,000 Americans die each year from these harms. But there are non-medical harms too. Not engaging patients and families in their own health care can cause a loss of dignity and respect and allow care inconsistent with their wishes and values—harms as real, and as preventable, as medical harms. While the majority of patients want to share in decisions about their own health, almost half report that their physicians do not always tell them about treatment options or involve them in treatment decisions. We believe these kinds of harms can be prevented, so we are working with other like-minded organizations to make that a reality.

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