NPR Series On Patient Safety Starts Today

Bob Carroll

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Patient Safety posts about a radio series starting today on National Public
Radio on, what else, Patient Safety.

NPR Series on Improving Patient Safety

For various reasons, I had to drive to Orlando from Southern Florida today, and happened to hear on the radio that NPR correspondent John Hockenberry will be presenting a series titled Remaking American Medicine starting this week (October 5, but as always, check your local listings). The NPR website subtitles its announcement "Startling statistics underscore chaotic conditions within the American healthcare system." The problem of patient safety will be addressed in this series.

I am delighted to find out that NPR is taking a look at the problem. A good documentary can have an enormous impact. The show's website cites the IOM report statistic that as many as 98,000 people may die each year because of errors, but as statistic such as this one doesn't always affect people the same way as listening to the people involved. The first program will present a mother whose daughter died at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. She is working with Don Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to prevent medical errors.