Patient safety: Help prevent medical errors by taking an active role in your care

The most important item in your wallet could be that little card on which you note the medications you're taking, your allergies and your surgical history.

Or not. Most people don't carry a comprehensive list, which could help save their lives in a medical emergency, says Dr. Quinn Weber, a physician in Pioneer Valley Hospital's emergency department.

The Institute of Medicine has recently turned a harsh spotlight on the question of medical errors and patient safety, from drug interactions and allergies to wrong-site surgery. It has issued reports spanning several years documenting hundreds of thousands of illnesses, injuries and deaths that it deems "preventable." But one key player in keeping patients safe, over which the health-care system has no control, say medical experts, is the patient himself.

"The single most important way you can help to prevent errors is to be an active member of your health-care team," says a guide by the American Academy of Family Physicians. "That means taking part in every decision about your health care. Research shows that patients who are more involved with their care tend to get better results."

The issue of patient safety and preventable error is so compelling that the Institute for Healthcare Improvement has launched a "5 Million Lives" patient-safety campaign to tackle what it estimates is close to 15 million incidents of medical harm that occur in hospitals nationwide each year. They've got the backing of the American Hospital Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Joint Commission and others.

At least 29 Utah hospitals have signed on, focusing on issues such as preventing hospital-acquired infections and ventilator-related pneumonia. But they, too, can't control

an individual's contribution to his own safety, save through education campaigns.

Hospitals and health organizations are identifying things they can do. And they're urging patients to do their part to prevent harm as well, says Mo Mulligan, a registered nurse and attorney who directs performance improvement at University Hospital.

"There's a huge need on the part of individuals to make sure they're making their care as safe as they can, and that's the part that's really hard to get out to the public," she says. "The biggest part is that I, as a patient, should not hand my health care over to somebody else."