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Hi Mike,I'm ready to start up an Organization to tackle the problem of Patient Neglect that's rampant in our Health Care System, and I'm contacting people to see if they'd like to sign up.
I've attached a synopsis about the Organization, and also a summary of what I've been doing since I launched my poll on Health Care Neglect in June last year.
As a supporter of my campaign, for which I'm very grateful, I'd like to know if I can count on your commitment to join the Organization either as a "general member" or as a "volunteer".
Please keep in mind, making a commitment simply means you're giving me an "assurance" that you'll join the Organization as soon as I set it up. It doesn't mean I'll be expecting you to devote your time and effort as a "volunteer". That's up to you to decide, and if you'd like to be a volunteer, then please let me know. Please realize, to help me start up and sustain the Organization, just your financial assistance (by way of a membership fee - $25.00 a year) is extremely crucial and will be most welcome.I need to get the Organization up and going, and would sincerely like to hear from you as soon as possible.
You can help me a great deal by forwarding this to others, and by talking to people about joining the Organization.
If you have any questions or concerns, I'll be more than happy to answer them. My contact information is on the web site. Here's the link: http://www.healthcareneglect.com/
Thanks,
Ed
The Organization:
Reason:
To unite people who will work together to improve Patient Care in Canada.To carry forward, solidify and perpetuate what I started and have done up to this point.
To do the tremendous amount of work ahead - work that will be ongoing and will require a lot of people.
To benefit everyone all across this country, not to advocate and seek personal retribution for people on a case by case basis.
Type:
Not-for-profit, non-charitable.Mandate:
Goal: Prevent people from becoming casualties of Neglectful Care.
Objective: Ensure that "Health Care Providers" exercise the "proper standard of care".Scope and Activities:
Focus solely on the subject of Neglectful Care of Patients.
Quality of care issues only. Emphasis is on "Quality" not "Quantity" of care.
The Organization will set up Committees who will work with Health Care authorities to:
Establish a clear definition of what is meant by "proper standard of care".
Introduce and strongly promote the use of "Due Diligence Checklist" concept to describe in detail what is required of Health Care Providers to do their job.
Ensure the use of an effective oversight process to monitor that Health Care Providers comply with (a) what is defined as "proper standard of care" and (b) what is itemized in the "Due Diligence Checklist".
Ensure that, to enforce compliance, appropriate measures are first established and then strictly followed.
Evaluate the usefulness of "tools" (i.e. ways and means) being developed to improve Patient Care and push for speedy implementation.
Get involved in "incident reporting" (a "tool" that's going to be adopted), and participate in investigating "incidents" that relate to Neglectful Care.
Ensure that timely remedial action is taken to prevent recurrence of "neglectful incidents".Sphere of operation:
The Organization will first be set up and begin operating here in Ottawa. Then, when it gets going and starts to grow, the Organization will spread out provincially and nation wide.Membership:
Type:
"Working" members i.e. Core Team (officers and administrative staff) and Committees. These are the people who will have to make a commitment to devote much needed time and effort (uncertain at this point).
"General" members consisting of thousands of people (I hope!) who will give their moral and, of course, essential financial support through membership fees.Fees:
Tentatively set at $25.00 a year (Fairly reasonable I would think!).Communication:
The Organization will be a venue for people to provide their stories and comments about Patient Care and offer suggestions for improvement. And, they'll be strongly encouraged to do so.
The Organization will communicate regularly with members about what it's doing through a newsletter, email, web site - and will also endeavour to use the media, as often as possible, for publicity.
When Madeleine, my wife, needlessly passed away in hospital in March 2003, I was totally distraught. But, instead of dealing with it on a personal level, I was inspired to pursue an altruistic course of action. I felt I had to do something to prevent the tragedy of Madeleine from happening to others. So, I embarked on a campaign to improve Patient Care in Canada and make this my life's work. SYNOPSIS OF MY CAMPAIGN TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE
AS OF MARCH 29, 2005The first thing I did, at the beginning of June last year, was to conduct a poll on Health Care with a web site and a quarter of a million booklets delivered to every household in Ottawa. The response was tremendous and I was flooded with heartbreaking and shocking stories of horrible treatment. People endorsed what I said and entrusted me to lead and represent them in any endeavour to bring about much needed improvement to Patient Care in this country.
Now it so happened that just before my poll came out, the Health Care Providers themselves published, on May 24th, the Adverse Events Study about patient casualties - thousands of preventable deaths (24,000 each year) and injuries happening everyday in hospitals all across Canada. The alarming facts validated what I said in my poll. It aroused my passion to vigorously push forward in my campaign. I seized the opportunity to accelerate matters by approaching the people who were going to address the issues described in the AE Study.
After a lot of persistence, I got in touch with the organizations that funded the AE Study - Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Both Graham Scott, Chairman of CIHI and Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of CIHR support what I'm doing.
And then, I managed to connect with the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) established a year ago to deal with improving Patient Care in this country. On November 24th, just 6 months after I launched the poll, I met with Carolyn Hoffman, Director of Operations. I've now started to do some work for CPSI. I've provided a categorized summary of people's bad experiences in hospitals as well as their insightful comments and suggestions, and I'll be reviewing the tools that CPSI are developing to improve Patient Care.
The media here in Ottawa has picked up on what I'm doing. CBC and CJOH TV, Ottawa Sun, and the community newspapers and radio have reported several times about my campaign.
As you can see, I've already made major headway, considering that I launched my campaign less than a year ago. I'm now on the threshold of making a significant contribution to improve Patient Care in our Health Care System that's in a crisis. Thousands and thousands of people's lives are at stake. For some it's life or death and for others it's a lifetime of pain and suffering. There's no time to waste; we have to act now.
It's a colossal undertaking and there's a huge amount of work to be done. I've got to this point through a solo effort of hard work and sheer determination. But, now I need help - a whole lot of help from lots and lots of people. I'm getting ready to start up an Organization and looking for people to sign up.
The Goal and sole focus of the Organization is to "Prevent people from becoming casualties of Neglectful Care". It'll be a not-for-profit, non-charitable organization that will first be set up and begin operating here in Ottawa and, when it gets going and starts to grow, will then spread out provincially and nation wide. Membership will consist of "volunteers" - people who will have to make a commitment to devote much needed time and effort - and "general members" - people who will give their moral and, of course, essential financial support through membership fees ($25.00 a year)
In order to gauge what the initial membership will be, for now, I'm simply asking people for a firm commitment to join the Organization.
There's never been anyone, anywhere, at anytime who has attempted anything like this. I'd like to invite each and every one of you out there to join me and contribute towards my endeavour to improve Patient Care in this land of ours.