Patient Safety Group Formed to Protect Patients in New England

New England Voices for Error Reduction has recently formed in order to provide patients around New England information about their doctor, their hospital, and other healthcare providers in order to improve patient safety and overall quality of care.
“Our mission is to be the watchdog for consumers in holding health care facilities, administrators and others accountable for quality improvements and [medical] error reduction,” said Lori Nerbonne, co-founder of New Hampshire Patient Voices, and a NEVER member.
According to the New Haven Independent, “Nerbonne said that the group hopes to be the ‘’voice of victims of medical harm, as they are an under-represented voice and yet pay dearly physically, emotionally and financially.’’
Jean Rexford, the executive director of Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, is the driving force behind NEVER.
Rexford, a long-time patient advocate, said consumers should to be able to look at health care not only within the state they live in, but by region as well. She said people should be able to match services they seek with those offered at the best quality and lowest cost.
“There needs to be a way to see how hospitals are stacking up to other hospitals,” said Rexford.
This news is most welcome for those of us who’ve been representing medical malpractice victims in New Hampshire.