Patients Meet To Promote Mother And Child Health In The Americas

Mother And Child Health

Health care and patient advocates from North and South America are gathering outside Chicago for an intensive three-day workshop focused on efforts to improve patient safety in mother and child health care.

Part of the World Health Organization (WHO) World Alliance for Patient Safety " Patients for Patient Safety initiative, the solutions-driven workshop aims to create a network of patient-advocacy leaders who can help expand opportunities for patient involvement in efforts to improve care.

The Regional Workshop on Patients for Patient Safety " Patient Safety Solutions will offer participants training in the design, implementation and evaluation of patient safety solutions that they can use to influence health policies and programs in their own countries and regions. Specific workshop segments will be devoted to a broad review of mother and child safety initiatives, analysis of maternal deaths, kernicterus (brain damage from neonatal jaundice) in Argentina, and lessons from the experiences of Parents of Infants and Children with Kernicterus (PICK).

"This workshop offers opportunities to create a patient safety framework that makes mother and child health a key priority in the Americas," says Karen H. Timmons, president and chief executive officer, Joint Commission International (JCI). "JCI, The Joint Commission, PAHO and WHO's World Alliance for Patient Safety are pleased to bring together these patient leaders to advance safety solutions."

"The patient must be at the center of all health care encounters," says Dennis S. O'Leary, M.D., president, The Joint Commission. "This workshop will help both patient advocates and health care professionals better meet that aim in providing mother and child services."

Among workshop participants are patient advocates from North and South America who have personally experienced health care errors. Sue Sheridan is leading the Patients for Patient Safety program of the World Alliance for Patient Safety, and the cofounder of the U.S. group PICK. Sheridan's son Cal suffered kernicterus due to an error in 1995, and her husband Pat died in 2002 from spinal cancer after a break-down in communication caused a significant delay in telling the couple that his tumor was malignant. Evangelina V squez from Mexico has a son, Uriel, who also suffered kernicterus due to a series of health care errors. Alfonso Maldonado from Peru lost his son Augusto because of misdiagnosis and delayed treatment of cancer. Professional health care participants include Jorge Mart nez, director of the Department of Pediatrics at Argentina's Universidad del Salvador, and Gerardo Cabrera-Meza, director of international neonatology at Texas Children's Hospital.

"Many of us have had our lives changed by failures in health care, but the experience has led us to become advocates for solutions to patient safety problems," says Sheridan. "This workshop will help us sharpen our advocacy skills and expand our networks to broaden our efforts throughout the Americas."