My First Steps

2009-08-09T23:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning began like every other: coffee, paper, facebook, and twitter. Among the earliest posts in my news feed was a link from patient advocate Dale Ann Micalizzi. I clicked it expecting to see new data about medication errors or a new patient-safety best practice helpful to the health care reform debate. Instead, I found a video that mixed the facts of medical errors with the faces of patients who died from them. I didn’t learn something, I felt something.

I stopped thinking about how better medication use can help pharmacists “get a seat at the table,” and felt how our patients need more from the medication use system. By lunch I had wall-posted and re-tweeted Hearst Publishing’s “Dead by Mistake”web series on medical errors and the Albany Times-Union’s story. By dinner over 100 people had clicked the links and read the stories. Barbara Olson (aka @SafetyNurse) had already analyzed and critiqued the article. Her excellent post "Baby Steps"describes the need for a culture of safety and transparency in health care reform from her expert perspective as a nurse educator and medical writer.

The most moving part of my day, however, was when Dale Ann and I spoke live for the first time, and she told me how she lost her son Justin. She described clinical details, legal details, and the role of health care organizations dedicated to improving health quality and eliminating errors. I heard, I felt, I hurt. When she offered to to speak to my students on the first day of classes I began to see the importance of patients' emotions to pharmacists' advocacy.

Justin’s HOPE promotes quality, safe, compassionate, patient and family centered healthcare and resolution of issues around medical errors through full disclosure. My hope is that her story and those profiled in Dead by Mistake remind everyone that health care isn’t about payment, policy, or politics; it’s about patients.

Pharmacist Advocacy

My First Steps