Category: Patient Safety

Safety Equals Trust with PPAHS: RT Sidebar Podcast

By Michael W. Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

I was honored to be a guest on RT Sidebar, a place to facilitate dialogue regarding the respiratory therapist profession hosted by Vapotherm.

On the podcast, I talked about why I set up the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety and the key patient safety initiatives like the Enhanced Respiratory Care program. Here are highlights from that podcast:

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How We’re Strengthening Nonprofits

In this article, Carly Roman-Woo, PhD (Program Officer, Archstone Foundation) discusses how their volunteer platform has helped the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety.

By Carly Roman-Woo, PhD (Program Officer, Archstone Foundation)

At Archstone Foundation, we are committed to fostering the health and well-being of all older Californians and their caregivers by ensuring they have the resources and support they need to live and age well. One way we achieve this is by strengthening those organizations dedicated to serving the people we care most about.

All too often, nonprofits work tirelessly to fulfill their missions with limited staff and modest budgets, which don’t leave them with adequate time or resources to focus on building their own capacity or infrastructure to serve their communities more efficiently and effectively. That is why we have committed to meeting these organizational needs. Given that we receive many more requests for capacity building grants than we can fund directly, we sought a solution to address this critical gap in resources for aging services organizations.

Enter Catchafire, a game-changing way to provide nonprofits pro bono expertise from skilled professionals.

To read our article on volunteering with PPAHS, please click here.

To read the entire article, please click here.

A Promise to a Mother: Inside Malpractice with Chris Rokosh, RN, PNC(C)

By Michael W. Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

14 years ago, I made a promise to Cindy Abbiehl, a mother who had lost her daughter to opioid-induced respiratory depression.

How and why I started the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) are discussed in this recent podcast with Chris Rokosh, RN, PNC(C). Chris has created a wonderful and informative series of podcasts “Inside Medical Malpractice”.

In “Inside Medical Malpractice”, Chris (President, CEO, and Founder of Connect Experts) explores the often misunderstood but fascinating world of medical malpractice with a variety of guests, from experienced lawyers to patients, and medical experts in the most sophisticated and complex areas of healthcare.

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I’ll Do What I Can: Speaking at the Ohio Consensus Conference on Opioid-Induced Respiratory Depression

By Michael W. Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

“I’ll do what I can”

I said to Cindy Abbiehl and her husband, Brian, “I’ll do what I can” after hearing that their daughter Amanda had died from opioid-induced respiratory depression.

Now, I realize that in social encounters, we often say things that we eventually do not follow through with. After all, we often say things like “we should do coffee one day” but don’t schedule time for coffee or “we should stay in touch” but don’t phone, email, or text to keep in touch.

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This Giving Tuesday, Let’s Continue Improving Patient Safety Together

This December 3, 2024, is Giving Tuesday! We invite you to join us in furthering our mission to improve patient safety globally.
The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) is proud to be ranked as a top-100 international patient safety organization dedicated to advancing patient health and safety. This year, we’ve made tremendous strides in enhancing care standards, thanks to the generous support of individuals like you:

Our Enhanced Respiratory Care Program has accredited healthcare facilities across six different states so far, ensuring they meet or exceed the national standard of care for mechanically ventilated patients. More facilities are going through quality reviews and clinicians are improving their respiratory practices through our continuing medical education (CME) courses. , These accreditations and certifications directly contribute to reducing adverse events and improving patient outcomes.
We proudly co-hosted the 2024 Global Sepsis Alliance Conference, addressing the critical issue of sepsis diagnosis and therapy. With over 12,000 attendees from 185 countries, our collaborative efforts are making a global impact. Moreover, our sepsis CME courses are the first time CME credits have been offered at the Global Sepsis Alliance.

Giving Tuesday 2024

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How Chronic Pain Affects Your Mental Health

By Eric Larson, PMHNP-BC (Larson Mental Health)

The revolution of mental health awareness in recent years has made countless positive strides in bringing the wellbeing of our minds to the forefront of the cultural conversation. However, the focus on psychological wellbeing may also be widening the gulf many people perceive between the mind and the body. Too often we fail to view the mind as a part of our body, not a separate entity. Your mindset is directly impacted by your physical health, and your physical health can change with your mindset. The human brain is more powerful than we give it credit for, but other components of the human body can still impact the way our brains function.

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The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety Expands Board of Advisors with Five Healthcare Industry Leaders, Enhancing Commitment to Patient Safety and Innovation

It is with great enthusiasm that the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health and Safety (PPAHS) welcomes five new members to its Board of Advisors. Collectively, these appointees bring to the Board a diverse wealth of experience from fields across the healthcare industry, including pharmacovigilance, public health, strategic planning and communications, healthcare startup venture investment, and the insurance payer sector.

In its 13-year history, the PPAHS Board of Advisors has consisted of clinicians and patient families. These most recent appointments complement and broaden current Board expertise, and in turn, expand PPAHS’s reach as a patient-safety authority.

PPAHS Executive Director and Founder, Michael Wong, JD, shared, “I am exceptionally pleased to have this team of esteemed professionals as the latest addition to the PPAHS Board. Though all new members individually represent a different corner of the healthcare landscape, each stood out in recruitment efforts due to their commitment to moving the needle on patient safety.”

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Pregnant Mothers Need Better Access to Healthcare

By Michael W. Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

Access to Healthcare is a Patient Safety Issue for Pregnant Women

The United States spends more than all other high-income countries on healthcare – $12,742 per person in 2022. Unfortunately, this spending is not bringing enough access to healthcare for pregnant women.

A recent report by March of Dimes, “Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US,” highlights the dismal state of access to maternal care in the United States.

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Emotional Safety Matters: Prioritizing Well-Being in Healthcare Environments

By: Dr. Jasmine Bonder, DNP, MSN, ACNP-BC, RN (Head of Clinical Care, Aidaly; Board of Advisors, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

Emotional distress among healthcare providers is an increasingly pressing concern, with profound implications for their overall well-being and professional performance. According to a 2022 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a significant 46% of healthcare workers reported experiencing burnout, a notable rise from the 14% reported in 2018. This alarming increase identifies the growing challenges faced by those in the healthcare sector, where emotional and psychological strain is more prevalent. Psychosocial hazards amongst healthcare workers have been attributed to poor and understaffed models, high acuity with minimal peer support and untrusted management systems.

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Learning from Other Countries to Improve Our Own Patient Safety

By Michael W. Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

In this thoughtful and well-written editorial in the Journal of Patient Safety, Olivia Lounsbury, MS (University of Oxford) and her colleagues urge patient safety advocates and clinicians to learn from each other to further their own goals of improving patient safety:

While national contexts differ, the potential for shared learning and collaboration between countries like the United States and United Kingdom is immense.

Lounsbury et. al. invite us to look at national patient safety initiatives, such as:

Finland’s Client and Patient Safety Strategy
New Zealand’s Quality and Safety Capability Framework
UK’s National Health Service’s Patient Safety Strategy

So, this is what I did, and here’s what I found.

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