SAVE THE PATIENT Newsletter


STP TESTIMONY FOR THE OCT. 16, 2003 PUBLIC HEARING OF THE COOK COUNTY COMMISSION ON WOMEN’S ISSUES
Written by Lois Frels, Lenore Janecek, and Cheryl Temple

Established in 2001 as a non-profit, 501C(3) organization, the mission of SAVE THE PATIENT (STP) is to educate and empower patients and the public in making effective and informed health care decisions through objective resources. It is estimated that medical errors are responsible for 44,000 to 98,000 deaths in the U.S.- accounting for more deaths than motor vehicle crashes, breast cancer, or AIDS according to the 1999 Institute of Medicine Report. An estimated 1.3 million Americans are injured and at least 400 die each year from medication errors according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

According to a recent New England Journal of Medicine, 1 out of 3 doctors, and 4 out of 10 patients are victims of medical error. In their health report, the Institute of Medicine reports nearly $37 BILLION is spent on medical error, and $17 billon is spent on PREVENTABLE error. Medical error and health illiteracy cost nearly $100 Billion annually. And the human and emotional costs are immeasurable

The imbalance between the wealth of medical information and technology and the public's ability to obtain and comprehend this information is a critical issue facing the American health care system. Helping to mitigate this imbalance is STP’s mission.

STP does not practice medicine, nor does it represent or endorse professional diagnosis or treatment options. Rather, STP represents the people without commercial or paid endorsements, advertisements or special interests. The services are offered free to the public.

STP is supported by grants and contributions from the public, government, community organizations, and businesses. It advocates for better health care for the public through education, communication and improved patient care. It is the consumer's health information organization. STP achieves its educational mission by providing information through Patient Advocacy, Community Outreach, Educational seminars, the Internet (since October 2002 over 5,000 hits have been recorded) and its Health Caring Cards. STP’s services are available to people of all ages, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds.

In a relatively short period of time, STP has laid a solid foundation as a catalyst for change. STP has a strong leadership team of committed, talented board members and consultants; STP has aligned itself with a strong network of collaborating partnership organizations; STP has established goals that are measurable and results oriented; STP’s educational initiatives- health caring cards, seminars and community outreach programs- are already positively impacting the lives of women and children.

STP has the benefit of informed counsel from valued professionals such as Ruth M. Rothstein, former Chief of the Cook County Board of Health Services (CCBHS). Recognizing the value of STP as a means of improving and delivering quality health care to all people, especially the underprivileged, Ms. Rothstein has recommended that STP share its health literacy initiatives with local medical schools and their students. STP is already implementing her idea to conduct focus groups as a mechanism for gathering community input that will drive its strategic planning for the coming year. (For additional information on STP’s focus groups, see the Fall 2003 newsletter included in your packet).

STP is appealing to the Cook County Commission on Women’s Issues for its support either monetary or in-kind. STP would like to have its free, health caring cards translated into additional languages and be able to reprint the cards that are currently available in English, Chinese, Spanish, and Polish. Printing costs for 10,000 cards range from $1,500-$2,000, depending on the translation expenses.

Health caring cards are a viable means of imparting health literacy skills. Offered at no charge to the public, these wallet-sized, laminated cards are two-sided- English on one side and a second language on the other. The cards contain pertinent health related questions that individuals need to ask of their health care professionals including surgeons, physicians, nurses, hospital personnel, and prescription drug providers.

The 2000 Cook County census confirms the diversity of peoples who reside in Cook County area. In an effort to educate Cook County’s diverse population, STP is seeking funding to translate and print its health caring cards in other languages including English Braille, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian and Hindi/Urdu.

Approximately 90 million Americans may have problems with health literacy according to the AMA. National surveys have found that 21% of adults born in America cannot read the newspaper and 48% cannot read a bus schedule.

Patients with low literacy are twice as likely to be hospitalized and twice as likely to report poor health. According to health economists, health illiteracy problems cost health systems $73 BILLION annually. Patients with low literacy are at risk for medical errors, increased hospitalizations and poor health outcomes.

According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, many public hospital patients do not understand basic health care information, nor do they know how to fill out forms, enroll for health insurance, apply for Medicaid, use health services correctly, or give informed consent. Most of the required forms are written at high school level or higher, making them unintelligible for less educated people and especially for non-English speaking people.

Here are some of the important facts

Inadequate literacy is an independent risk factor for hospital admission for elderly managed care enrollees, according to the Center for Health Care Strategies.

Those with poor health literacy are more likely to have a chronic disease and less likely to get the health care they need. Emergency room patients with inadequate literacy are twice as likely to be hospitalized as those with adequate literacy.

There are barriers to health ACCESS, DIAGNOSIS, and TREATMENT for the low literate populations. Their lives are at risk, and so are ours, if we do not take responsibility for our health through education, information, and empowerment. SAVE THE PATIENT believes many health errors could be eliminated or avoided by ensuring patients exercise their rights, have access to care, come properly prepared during the medical encounter, and have advocates to help them, if needed.

The 2002 Cook County census data reveals that women comprise 51.6 % of the County’s population and 15.6 % are female heads of households with children under 18 years of age. Typically women are the primary care takers of their family’s health care needs. It is imperative that women can communicate effectively with health care professionals. STP’s health carding cards would assist women in their role as care givers and give them the ability to communicate their children’s and other family members’ health care needs.

Recently the Chicago Tribune reported that a Georgetown University Medical Center survey of nearly 800 gynecologists in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington area revealed that nearly 50% of those surveyed “acknowledged routinely performing a more drastic form of hysterectomy than may be medically necessary.” Dr. Steven Goldstein, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University, commented that “what makes this survey disturbing is not just that doctors were making a choice for their patients without consulting them, but that they chose a surgical option that I believe most women would never choose for themselves, if they were told the truth about their options.”

Options are key when it comes to medical care and diagnosis. Providing women with tools that will help them understand and evaluate their health care options is exactly what the mission of STP is all about. We believe that aligning ourselves with other like-minded organizations throughout Cook County can only serve to intensify our efforts and achieve our common goal of improving health literacy for all peoples.

We ask for your support as we continue to SAVE THE PATIENT, for the life you save may be your own.