HOSPITAL PATIENT RIGHTS DAY NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCED

(PRLEAP.COM) The National Institute for Patient Rights (NIPR) today announced a nationwide campaign for a National Patient Rights Day for hospitals. The campaign also marks the launch of NIPR’s web site www.empowerpatients.com and blog www.empowerpatientsblog.com.

Dr. Mark E. Meaney, President and CEO of NIPR, stated that the intent of the campaign is to call attention to the community education provisions of the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) for hospitals.

Dr. Meaney stated that, "The Patient Self-Determination Act remains a touchstone of a larger social and medical movement to enhance patient rights at the hospital bedside."

Meaney went on to observe that, despite billions spent on advanced medical technologies, patients daily experience an erosion of their rights at the hospital bedside (http://empowerpatients.com/index_files/Page1231.htm).

Ironically, the enormous advances in medicine have contributed to the erosion.

With specialist and sub-specialists for every organ, "component management" has led to episodic intervention and a fragmentation of care. The fragmentation of care, in turn, has led to problems in hospitals of a "failure to communicate" and "miscommunication".

Meaney also noted that, despite its successes, the record on the implementation in hospitals of the community education provisions of PSDA remains "abysmal."

Hospital-based healthcare professionals have neither the time nor the money to conduct community outreach on patient rights among a public who will eventually need this information.

It is hoped that a National Patient Rights Day would serve to focus national attention on a continuing, dire need for community education programming in patient rights.

Meaney stated, "The lack of information about patient rights no doubt contributes to conflict between family members and healthcare providers. Conflict is costly."

In Colorado, NIPR is working closely with Congresswoman Diana DeGette’s office to promote a National Patient Rights Day. Meaney called DeGette a "bold visionary" and a national leader in the health care arena.

The National Institute for Patient Rights (NIPR) is a free-standing, nonpartisan, community interest organization with a social mission dedicated to improving the provision of health care services in a manner respectful of the dignity of patients.

NIPR sponsors programs and publishes materials to educate the public on their rights as patients and patient advocates (http://empowerpatients.com/index_files/Page490.htm). We believe that patients and their advocates can learn how to assert their rights without necessarily alienating healthcare providers.

For further information about the National Institute for Patient Rights and the National Campaign, please contact Dr. Meaney at:

NIPR
Suite 301
6635 E 18th Ave.
Denver, CO
Tel: (303) 321-8600

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