Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors

CONTACT:

5 New England Executive Park
Burlington, MA 01803
781-262-6081
www.macoalition.org

Paula Griswold, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

Probably no one thinks of philanthropy as helping to prevent medical errors, but it does. According to a 1999 landmark report by the Institute of Medicine, up to 98,000 people annually die in hospitals by preventable medical errors. They are in fact the eighth leading cause of deaths in the U.S. The Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors, a public-private partnership, unites health care providers, government agencies, and consumers statewide, to improve patient safety. Some of the problems are easily remediable—MCPME’s “Reconciling Medications” initiative is a statewide project to ensure that patients' medication lists are carefully reviewed to prevent medication errors when patients are admitted to the hospital, transferred, or discharged.. MCPME has worked to speed communications between testing laboratories and clinicians, to ensure timely transmission of test results that require immediate follow-up. In 2007, the Coalition started targeting the elimination of infections acquired in acute care hospitals. To date, 88% of acute care hospitals in Massachusetts have agreed to participate in MCPME’s Hospital Infection Prevention Collaborative; the goal is 100% participation. Your participation now can help the Coalition in these literally life-saving efforts.

(2008: HUMAN SERVICES: Health & Aging)