Welcome to CTCPS

The Connecticut Center for Patient Safety works in our communities, within our healthcare systems, and with elected officials to improve the quality of healthcare and to protect the rights of injured patients through education, accountability, and advocacy.

The CT Center for Patient Safety is a forceful voice for the health care consumer. Our health care system is not really a system; rather the “system” is a collection of industries that have bottom lines and whose profits can be at the expense of the patient.

Change is in the air and our nation and our state are in the process of trying to figure out how to give better care and decrease the skyrocketing costs and the incidence of error. Unless an organization represents the interests of the consumer, our voices will not be heard. We are that organization.

The consumer is increasingly vulnerable and confused as he or she is the target of advertising by the pharmaceutical companies, individual hospitals, and physician services. We spend less time with our doctors and increased time and energy trying to navigate billing and insurance codes. We have no confidence that we understand just what our insurance policies cover or what lurks in the fine print found in either pharmaceutical company handouts or the vast number of mailings we receive from our insurance companies if we are indeed fortunate enough to be covered.

We do not have deaf ears. We listen and hear you and we want you to join with us to increase the power of our voice and the demand that all reform be based on consumer needs. In other words, we want to see a patient centered system that supports prevention and provides well informed delivery of care.

Patient Safety is about the systems that must be put in place to assure quality of care for everyone. Quality of care, we believe, is a right.

An important health reform bill was passed this year: Sustinet Health Parrtnership that is charged with establishing:

• an information technology advisory committee that shall formulate a plan for developing, fully interoperable electronic medical records software and hardware packages for subscribing providers.
• a medical home advisory committee that shall develop recommended internal procedures and proposed regulations governing the administration of patient-centered medical homes
• a health care provider advisory committee that shall develop recommended clinical care and safety guidelines for use by participating health care providers.
• a preventive health care advisory committee that shall use evolving medical research to draft recommendations to improve health outcomes for members in areas involving nutrition, sleep, physical exercise, and the prevention and cessation of the use of tobacco and other addictive substances.
• a task force to study childhood and adult obesity.
• a task force to study tobacco use by children and adults
• a task force to study the state's health care workforce.