The Center for Patient Protection | PatientProtection.Healthcare

The beginning of a better, safer, more compassionate healthcare experience.

“It is not acceptable for patients to be harmed by the health care system that is supposed to offer healing and comfort.”

from To Err is Human, an investigation by the Institute of Medicine into patient safety and medical errors,
November 1999

Looking for Hospital Harm by the Numbers?  It’s here.

Did you know?

Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in Canada and the United States.

30,000 hospitalized patients lose their lives to medical errors in Canada every year. That’s the equivalent of a fully loaded jumbo jet crashing and killing everyone on board each week. 

The risk of avoidable death in a U.S. hospital with a D or F patient safety grade is 92 percent higher than it is in hospitals with than an A grade.

Canada has no similar hospital rating tool to allow patients and families to make informed decisions about the safety of their healthcare provider. 

Canada does, however, have a system where taxpayer dollars are used to fund a legal defense scheme for doctors who harm patients. The U.S. has no such system and, unlike hospital safety scores for Canada, there is no demand that such a scheme be created in the U.S.

It is predicted that 12 million Canadians in hospital and home-care settings will be harmed by the healthcare system over the next 30 years, costing the health-care system an additional $2.75 billion per year. Another 1.2 million people will lose their lives. 

Research has shown that one in 18 patients are harmed during their stay in a Canadian hospital. That adds up to a lot of patients.  And a lot of harm.

Snapshots of Harm

What do patients & families want?

Healing Virtues

Outreach Clinic

Since 2018, PatientProtection.Healthcare and the ZeroNow Campaign have called for federal action to address gender-based gaps in healthcare and in the well-being of victims of sexual violence. In Prime Minister Trudeau’s mandate letter of December 2019 to the Minister of Health, the federal government committed to developing an action plan to reduce gender-related health gaps. Kathleen Finlay’s Hill Times op-ed is part of a series of articles and commentaries that provide insight into a way forward that can produce genuine game-changing outcomes.

 

Kathleen Finlay’s op-ed in The Hill Times, calling for appointment of a
federal gender-based anti-violence Commissioner.

Suicide is becoming an epidemic among certain population groups in Canada. Every year, at least 100,000 attempt to end their lives. Among Canadian youth, suicide is the second leading cause of death. Victims of gender-based violence and bullying are especially at risk, as are members of our indigenous communities. We call for a new approach and fresh thinking to address this public health crisis, including the creation of a national three-digit 988 suicide prevention hotline network.