Newsletters

February, 2012
• U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has joined two other senators introducing Medical Device Safety Legislation
• Study finds more than 130.000 Medicare beneficiaries experienced one or more adverse events in hospitals in a single month
• Transparency and Accountability Needed NOW!
• SAVE THE DATE: March 7, 2012 Learn about patient safety and your role as your own advocate.

January, 2012
• Medical Device Safety Legislation introduced by Senator Blumenthal (D) of Connecticut
• Payments from Drug and Medical Device Manufacturers to Doctors must now be reported
• Drugs Prices Rise Faster Than Other Health Care Costs
• Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 4-10, 2012

December, 2011
• New practice of placing hospital patients on observation status can leave Medicare patients with big bills.
• Prescription Painkiller Overdoses in the U. S.
• Velez Family Fund Challenge
• Medical Device adverse events grew by 17% while the industry itself grew by only 9%.

November, 2011
• U.S. Health Care System Gets Low Grade From Commonwealth Fund
• Consumers Union Safe Patient Summit

October, 2011
• Costs shift to workers as health insurance expenses rise
• Federal Government steps up demand for more comprehensive and more transparent infection reporting
• Medical Errors Among Lapses Cited By Medical Board
• Health Insurers Deny Up To A Third Of State Applicants

September, 2011
• NEVER - Northeast Voices for Error Reduction
• Medical Devices - Lives and Money are at stake
• Medicare Fraud

July, 2011
• Legislative Wrap Up
• Top Four Don'ts for Doctors in Primary Care

June, 2011
• Public Citizen analyzes disciplinary actions taken against physicians – Connecticut once again ranks in the bottom ten.
• NEVER (Northeast Voices for Error Reduction)
• ProPublica continues to expose conflicts of interest.
• Financial Ties Bind Medical Societies to Drug and Device Makers

April, 2011
• Hospital Acquired Infection Legislation.
• Mary Ellen Ladd raises our awareness of Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month
• Letter to Legislators Re: A patient perspective on liability PROTECTION.

March, 2011
• SustiNet - a Connecticut health care plan passed into law in July, 2009. Its goal is to provide affordable health care coverage to 98% of Connecticut residents by 2014.
• More errors result of physicians not listening
• A personal story written by John Torello

February, 2011
• Preventable deaths They will continue until there is a national strategy to stop them
• Negligent Physicians Connecticut Medical Examining Board needs to toughen up
• Medical errors take an horrendous toll

January, 2011
• Patient Advocacy Resources
• The Connecticut Health Investigative Team (www.C-HIT.ORG)
• Governor-Elect Dan Malloy has selected Dr. Jewel Mullen to lead the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
• Negligent Physicians - Connecticut Medical Examining Board needs to toughen up

December, 2010
• Federal database for consumer complaints approved
• Study Finds No Progress in Safety at Hospitals
• $3.1 Billion Recovered Through the False Claims Act During Fiscal Year 2010: Largest Recoveries From Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
• Consumer Reports Insights: Get the facts about drugs that are recalled

November, 2010
• Patient Advocacy: ways to get involved
• Prescription Drug Use Soared in the Past Decade
• Glaxo to Pay $750 Million for Sale of Bad Products
• Surgical errors continue despite protocols
• discussion on Healthcare Associated Infections Prevention Outcomes

October, 2010
• Carpe Diem, buyer beware – not just for used cars, but for healthcare as well
• Connecticut Doctors Slow to Adopt Electronic Record-Keeping
• Report: Drug Costs for Seniors to Skyrocket Next Year

September, 2010
• A discussion about the importance of informed decisions regarding one’s own healthcare
• New York Times Report: Very powerful antipsychotic drugs being used to treat very young children.
• Pennsylvania cost containment makes a business case for eliminating infections...

August, 2010
• Articles about Avandia
• Obama appoints Berwick CMS administrator
• Study Examines Sepsis and Septic Shock After Surgery
• Survey: doctors have direct, personal knowledge of an impaired or incompetent physician
• New Survey Launched to Query Patients/Consumers on Overtreatment

July, 2010
• Letters we won't send but have always wanted to write

June, 2010
• The cost of infections
• Trip to the CDC
• Estimates of Healthcare-Associated Infections
• Infectious diseases that may be acquired in healthcare facilities

May, 2010
• the increased use of anti-depressants in our society
• S.B. 248 – An Act Concerning Adverse Events at Hospitals and Outpatient Surgical Facilities
• S.B. 270 – An Act Concerning the Prohibition of Certain Gifts from Pharmaceutical and Medical Device manufacturing Companies to Health Care Providers
• The Empowered Patient Coalition
• Patient reporting site for medical errors is now online
• list of resources for you to access to better understand health reform and what it might mean to you

April, 2010
• The Physicians Sunshine Act
• Study Sees a Slant in Articles on Avandia
• Lack of communication – it’s a big deal

March, 2010
• The Lilly heist and the need for e-pedigree
• New Adverse Events Study is more than troubling
• 1956 hospital expose

March, 2010 – Legislative Update Edition
• Senate Bill 270 would restrict the gifts provided to health care workers
• Senate Bill 248 would require hospital specific reports of adverse events
• Senate Bill 103 concerning access to comprehensive factual information regarding long- term care facilities
• Senate Bill 222 would allow a person who had filed a complaint a great role and access to information about the status of the complaint, and notice of the final outcome.

February, 2010
• Real life stories that are unacceptable
• Harvard Doc Steps Down to Keep Drug-Industry Speaking Gig
• Growing Connecticut Coalition willing to take on the Pharmaceutical Industry
• The Treatment Trap
• The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making

January, 2010
chiropractic examining board hearing- Patients Should Know Risks
• Hospitals Affiliated with Harvard Limit Outside Pay - conflicting roles of some medical leaders
• Health Lobbying Explodes in 2009

December, 2009
• CT Scans and Unnecessary Imaging
• How Can We Prevent Having to Undergo Too Many Tests?
• Study questions safety of mammograms for young women at high risk of cancer.

November, 2009 – Special Mid-Month Edition
• Doctor uses wrong man's sperm to produce twins.
• St Francis Hospital in Hartford is on Probation for one year.
• Hidden Mistakes

November, 2009
• Money Driven Medicine
• Save the date! Consumers Union Safe Patient Project live forum webcast -- November 17, 2010
• Senior Pastor, Rev. Michael J. Moran, First Congregational Church, New Milford speaks on Understanding the Ethical Issues Behind Negligence
• How Clean Is That Hand You Are Shaking

October, 2009
• How clean is your soap?
• CTCPS in Our Nation’s Capitol
• Illegal Marketing of Zyprexa

September, 2009
• Jean Rexford appointed to the Connecticut State Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
• The Bankruptcy Toll or Medical Bankruptcy
• Pfizer Gets a Well Deserved Fine

August, 2009 – Mid-Month Update
• Dead by Mistake – Preventable Deaths
• PR – Not Science: Wyeth paid ghostwriters to pen journal articles on hormone replacement therapy
• Pfizer Investigator Stalked Neurontin Witness - Who Paid Off the Plaintiffs?
• Doctors Reap Benefits By Doing Own Tests
• Not even a Hospital President is immune to MRSA
• 10 Steps to Better Health Care

August, 2009
• The SustiNet Bill is now law
• Conflicts of interest common in cancer research
• Focus on Nursing Home Care
• MYTH: A new public health plan will only drive-up health care costs

July, 2009 – Mid-Month Update
• Nursing Home Bill of Rights
• SB325: An Act Concerning Pharmacy Errors and Pharmacy Commission Meeting Minutes
• Only 1% of pharmacy errors are ever reported.

July, 2009
• Proposed time line for Health care reform
• H.R. 2937: Congress Takes On MRSA
• FDA panel backs ban on painkillers

June, 2009 – Mid-Month Update
• Report from our nation's capitol – Our lobbying efforts on consumer principles for health reform.
• 1 in 4 Nursing Home Residents Carries MRSA
• Myths about healthcare reform

June, 2009
• agreement requiring pharmaceutical companies to disclose all payments over $1000 made to doctors falls through
• Study finds limited reporting of disciplinary actions
• A Celebrity Patient Sells His Soul to the Pharma Devil

May, 2009
• Real Age...think twice before you answer those questions. Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers.
• Senate Bill 1049, a Pharma gift ban to physicians is alive and well
• Cutting Surgical Infections

April, 2009
• Senate Bill 1091: An Act Concerning Complaints Pending in the Department of Public Health Against Physicians and Other Health Care Providers
• What In The World Is AMSA?
• Limiting Pharma

March, 2009
• Taking on the Pharmaceutical Industry
• testimony on Medical accountability and responsibility at a Public Health hearing in Hartford – in spite of the blizzard.
• Call to Act - Contact Members of the Public Health Committee and urge them to support Senate Bill 1049
• Reporter looking for the people behind the statistics.

February, 2009 – Taking Action, Making a Difference
• SB 1049: supporting a gift ban

February, 2009
• Powerful Testimony of Janet Levy pushing for full disclosure in Support of SB 90
• This week in Hartford

February, 2009
• Public Access to Pharmacy Prescription Errors
• AHRQ Director Helps Consumers Navigate the Health Care System in a Web Advice Column
• November 2009 will mark the tenth anniversary of the IOM report - To Err is Human

January, 2009 Update
• Our Legislative Agenda
• MRSA infections rising in children’s' ear, nose, throat
• Bills we are watching: Proposed Bill No. 216: An act providing a cap on noneconomic damages in Medical Malpractice Action; Proposed Bill No 5291: An act concerning Department of Public Health Oversight Over gifts provided by the Pharmaceutical Industry to Health care providers; Proposed Bill No 108: An act concerning the Nursing Home facility Patients' Bill of Rights; Proposed Bill No 135: An act prohibiting the sale of physician prescription drug records for the purpose of pharmaceutical marketing; Proposed Bill No 45: Prohibition of certain gifts from pharmaceutical sales reps to health care providers; Proposed Bill No 90: An Act requiring chiropractors to obtain informed written consent from a patient prior to performing certain procedures involving treatment of the cervical spine; Proposed Bill No 5030:An act concerning the establishment of a prescription drug academic detailing pilot project.

January, 2009
• Changes at the FDA: Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore's health commissioner to head the federal agency
• Millions weighing medical costs to find savings
• MRSA fight extends into the community

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