Over 250 Louisiana Health Care Providers Gather to Hear Sorrel King Tell Josie’s Story
Toddler’s Tragic Death Spurs Patient Safety Improvements Locally and Nationwide

Wednesday,  April 21, Baton Rouge, LA -- On Monday, April 26, Sorrel King will visit Baton Rouge to tell over two hundred and fifty Louisiana health care providers the chilling real-life story that many have only read about in the New York Times or seen on the Oprah Winfrey show.   It’s a clarion call for patient safety improvements that will help providers avoid medical errors such as the one that caused the death of Sorrel King’s 18-month old daughter, Josie, at Johns Hopkins Medical Center.

Ms. King, author and President of the Josie King Foundation, turned a personal tragedy into a mission to improve patient safety.   Along the way, she has learned that oversights and errors are often a failure of systems rather than due to carelessness or negligence by doctors and nurses, who daily face their own dread of harming a patient.

“A Mother’s Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe,” is the luncheon address that Ms. King will deliver at the eQHealth Solutions 2010 Louisiana Medicare Quality Summit & Awards event at the Baton Rouge Marriott, 5500 Hilton Avenue.    She will explain how basic patient safety techniques, like good communication and strong teamwork, are essential and immediately available tools to begin to confront the problem of avoidable medical errors in American hospitals.   She will also describe the patient safety programs that the foundation created in Josie’s name that are making health care safer for us all

The  day-long health care quality Summit features educational sessions on patient safety, avoiding hospital readmissions, reducing pressure ulcers, electronic health records and quality improvement.  Those Louisiana health care providers who have reached and exceeded their quality improvement targets set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be honored during the awards ceremony that follows Ms. King’s presentation.

Ms. King will be available from 1:30-2:30 pm at the Marriott to sign copies of the book, Josie’s Story, named one of the best new health books of 2009 by the Wall Street Journal.   Sorrel was chosen as one of “50 Women Changing the World” by Woman’s Day Magazine in February 2010.

Resources:
1) More information about Josie’s Story is available at:
www.josieking.org
2) 2010 Louisiana Medicare Quality Improvement Summit & Awards http://louisianaqio.eqhs.org/Summit2010.htm
2) CMS patient safety goals that many Louisiana hospitals are currently striving to reach include:

·         Reduced rates of healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection

·         Reduced rates of pressure ulcers in nursing homes

·         Reduced rates of physical restraint use in nursing homes

·         Improved inpatient surgical safety rates and heart failure treatment by hospitals

·         Improved drug safety by reducing rates of drug-drug interactions and decreasing the prescription of potentially inappropriate medications
Links:
www.cms.hhs.ogv/qualityimprovementorgs
www.qualitynet.org/medqic
www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov