ShareThisSorrel King, 46, of Baltimore began campaigning for patient safety after her 18-month-old daughter Josie died because of medical errors on Feb. 22, 2001. She continues to speak at health-care-related conferences and elsewhere about safety issues.
Excerpts from an interview:
Q: It's been 10 years since Josie died. How old is the Josie King Foundation?
A: The Josie King Foundation was formed when she died. It was formed after we signed the settlement papers. We said we don't want this money ... We don't want to let anyone off the hook. Our lawyer said you should take money and do something good with the money, and that's when the light bulb went off in our heads.
Q: Has your campaign for patient safety progressed during that time?
A: Hugely. Yes, it has.
Q: Have there been any particular achievements by you and the foundation of which you are proud or feel you've made a difference?
A: Yes, a few I will mention. The main thing I've been able to do is I've been able to stand in front of hundreds and thousands of health-care providers, doctors, nurses, CEOs and talk to them about patient safety, breakdowns in communications, and just the need to change the culture, the need to improve teamwork between doctors and nurses, the tremendous importance of doctors and nurses communicating and listening to patients and their families. That's sort of the overall things we've achieved.
Along those lines we've created programs, family-activated rapid-response teams, and these programs are at hospitals around the country. The Care Journal program campaign has been a hit with hospitals around the country (that) have partnered with that. I wrote a book called "Josie's Story," and that book is about medical errors and Josie's story, and that book is being used in medical schools and nursing schools and being used as sort of an educational tool. So (we've done) lots of things.
I get invited (to speak). I visit these hospitals or big health-care conferences. The health-care industry is hungry for change, and sometimes, unfortunately, it takes a real story to change this ... It takes more than data and PowerPoint presentations. The real story, since 10 years (have gone by), it's been inspiring change in ways different than data and statistics. The real story just rings home.
Q: What is a Care Journal?
A: The Care Journal is a little green book for patients and family when you go to the hospital; (there are) 30 prompts: parking place, surgeries, questions to ask. It's a way for families and patients to stay organized. ... It's a tool the hospital gives to the patient or the family ... It encourages the patient to speak up, ask questions. It's an empowerment tool. It's a great thing coming from the hospital. It's a symbolic way the hospital can say, "We want you to speak up. We want you to be a part of the team." There's always been a bit of disconnect between the hospital and patient and family. This helps bridge that disconnect.
This tool is now a Patient Journal app. It's a huge hit, (in) 45 different countries. You can create an informal set of medical records and keep track of information (and) send it to a family member or family physician or what-have-you.
Q: Are you or the foundation working on any projects at the moment?
A: Yes, we are. We are working on potentially taking this app to the next level, making it available for iPad and Blackberry (and), other tablets. And we're working with other hospitals, looking at speaker requests; (there are) Care Journal orders out there; there's a tool for nurses to help handle stress called the Nursing Journal. We're busy. Most important, we're getting the word out there; we're inspiring the industry to be better.
The book, "Josie's Story," I never thought it would be such a great tool. Nursing schools and medical schools (using it as a kind of text).
Q: Do you think conferences ... help to improve patient safety?
A: I do. I do. It's just a way to bring everyone together to discuss this and where to go now is beyond discussing it, and now we need to put words into action. (Patient errors kill an estimated 98,000 people a year.) That's more than plane crashes, more than AIDS and diabetes, every year. ...
Q: What still needs to be done? How can that hospital-mistake death rate be lowered further?
A: From my perspective, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, raising awareness ... Put me in front of a couple hundred doctors and nurses. I've been doing it eight years. My schedule is still booked. There's a need for this. They know the problem. They want to get better. ... I can talk about communication, changing the culture, and I think that's what needs to happen. If we can't get into their hearts and heads why we have to change, then all the millions we're spending on technology, it's all going to be a waste ... In health care ... they're cutting back, there are cutbacks. It's complicated.
Q: What can individuals do to help lower that hospital-mistakes death rate?
A: Like I was saying before, when you're going into the hospital, stay on top of things, ask questions, never be afraid to ask questions, write things down, stay organized.
(Email Pohla Smith at psmith(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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