Quality & Safety Advocates

The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making is a non-profit organization leading changes to ensure that health care decisions are made with the active participation of fully informed patients.

The Assertive Patient website was created by Health Care for All to help patients who had a poor health care experience to speak out helping to improve the quality and safety of health care.

NewsCenter 5 examines the need for reform in Healthcare Uncovered.

The New England Healthcare Institute is one of the region's leading non-profit, independent health policy institute dedicated to transforming health care for the benefit of patients and their families.

Massachusetts Health Quality Partners is a broad-based coalition of physicians, hospitals, health plans, purchasers, consumers, academics, and government agencies working together to improve the quality of health care services in Massachusetts.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is based in Cambridge, MA, and is one of the pioneers of the health care quality movement.

The Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI) is a consortium of health care, business, and civic leaders, and was the first to realize that solving the issues of quality and safety is a social and business imperative.

The Commonwealth Fund is a foundation that conducts detailed studies of health care and works to create a high performing health care system.

whynotthebest.org, a website created by The Commonwealth Fund, that lets you compare hospitals nationwide on quality measures; and also lists the nation's best performing hospitals.

The Health Care Quality and Cost Council (QCC) was formed by Massachusetts' landmark health care reform law, which expanded to provide health insurance to almost every citizen in the state. The QCC's mission is to improve the quality and better control the costs of health care in the Commonwealth.

Patient and Family Stories and Advocacy

Sadly, many people have been harmed by the health care system. This has led to passionate advocacy for patient safety and health care improvement.

The Josie King Foundation was started by Sorrel and Tony King after their 18-month-old daughter died from medical mistakes in one of the nation's best hospitals.

Justin's Hope is a foundation created by the mother of Justin Micalizzi. He died at the age of 11 following medical errors and complications he suffered following minor surgery to treat his septic ankle.

Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) is a consumer-led nonprofit organization formed to be a collective voice for individuals, families, and healers who wish to prevent harm in health care encounters through partnership and collaboration. Visit the CAPS website to learn more about their programs to improve public safety. Read personal stories from patient advocates, and download resources that can help patients and their family.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has created a special section on its website called Patients for Patient Safety. It provides information and news about patient safety efforts.

Three members of Victoria and Armando Nahum's family suffered infections within a year of each other. Their son Josh died from one of three infections he acquired while being treated for an accident. In his memory, the Nahum's created the Safe Care Campaign to prevent health care and community acquired infections. The website provides a number of important resources for both patients and providers.

Explore Some Hospitals' Work on Quality

Many hospitals are recognized for their leadership in the quality movement.

Caritas Christi Health Care, the largest community-based hospital network in New England, and a partner in our Alternative Quality Contract, calls its commitment to improving health care, "Quality to the People."

Cincinnati Children's Hospital was one of the first hospitals and the only pediatric hospital selected to take part in the "Pursuing Perfection" initiative launched by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation in the wake of the groundbreaking "To Err is Human" report. Cincinnati Children's has, ever since, been a leader in quality-, safety-, and family-centered care, as well as transparency.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is one of the few hospitals in the country that makes public its internal quality results.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy blogs about Running a Hospital and discusses quality and safety as well as other health care issues.

Comparison Tools

There are other tools and resources on the web to help you learn more about the cost and quality of health care.

• The Leapfrog Group compares hospitals nationwide on quality and cost


• The Department of Health and Human Services has it own comparison tool


• And the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a tool that compares all the hospitals in the state at My Health Care Options^TM