Monday, September 26, 2011

YOUR HEALTH CARE:CHOICE OR CHANCE?

Patty Skolnik, Founder/Executive Director, Citizens for Patient Safety, joined me on Your Health Care:Choice or Chance? on Wednesday, September 21, 2011, to talk about this great organization. Patty founded Citizens for Patient Safety when her only child, Michael, died tragically from an egregious medical error resulting from his taking Wellbutrin to stop smoking. Patty has taken all her pain and worked tirelessly to prevent this horrible situation from ever happening again to another family.

You can watch the show in October in Cape Cod and in other communities. You can also listen on podcast in October at http://www.tvyourhealthcare.org/. Call for the schedule:

Cape Media: (508)394-2388 - Cotuit, Marstons Mills, Osterville, Centerville, Hyannis, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Barnstable and Chatham

Sandwich: (508)888-6800
Mashpee: (Weds, 8:30 p.m., Ch. 17
Burlington: (781)273-5922
Wellesley: (781-239-1444

MNA RALLY

On September 19, 2011, MNA nurses and I rocked at a patient safety rally at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis! I am so proud and honored that they asked me to MC this event and I am so proud to be a member of the Coalition to Protect Massachusetts Patients, an alliance that now comprises more than 125 of Massachusetts leading health care and consumer advocacy groups.

As the MC, I talked about why the patient safety bill is so important. Then I introduced the speakers, both of whom have been in the health care frontlines: Alex Ziss, a retired administrator of Falmouth Hospital, and Shannon Sherman, R.N, Cape Cod Hospital. Simultaneously, there were patient safety rallies at four other Massachusetts hospitals.

The next day, September 20, 2011, the Joint Committee on Public Health in the Legislature held a hearing on legislation to set safe patient limits for nurses, as well as for a new bill to ban the dangerous practice of mandatory overtime as a means of staffing hospitals.

It is so important that we Mass. residents contact our senators and reps to vote for these measures. Make no mistake: it is we, the people of Massachusetts, who are the most important stakeholders in the debate of hospital understaffing, for it is we who depend on safe hospitals when we are at our most vulnerable. And right now, there is one thing that is certain: there is no standard of safety that you can count on!!!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

YOUR HEALTH CARE:CHOICE OR CHANCE?

MORE NEWS!! ON AUGUST 17, 2011, KATHLEEN CLARK, ESQ, CEO OF SERVANT LAWYERSHIP, JOINED ME TO DISCUSS COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES IN MEDICINE. THIS FIELD IS NEW AND ITS GOAL IS TO BRING HEALING TO THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED AN ADVERSE MEDICAL EVENT. IT IS ALSO DESIGNED TO INCREASE PATIENT SAFETY BECAUSE BY TALKING ABOUT THE ERRORS MADE IN THESE CASES, THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY WILL LEARN HOW TO PREVENT THEM IN THE FUTURE.

YOU CAN WATCH THE SHOW IN SEPTEMBER IN THE FOLLOWING COMMUNITIES - CALL THE NUMBERS TO FIND OUT THE SCHEDULES. YOU CAN ALSO LISTEN TO THE SHOW ON PODCAST IN SEPTEMBER AT http://www.tvyourhealthcare.org/.

BURLINGTON: (781)273-5922
WELLESLEY: (781)239-1444
SANDWICH: (508)888-6800
MASHPEE: (508)419-7450
CAPE MEDIA TOWNS: COTUIT, MARSTONS MILLS, OSTERVILLE, CENTERVILLE, HYANNIS, YARMOUTH, DENNIS AND CHATHAM, BARNSTABLE AND HARWICH - (508)394-2388

YOUR HEALTH CARE:CHOICE OR CHANCE?

BIG NEWS!! ON AUGUST 10, 2011, SENATOR DAN WOLF (D-HARWICH) GUESTED ON YOUR HEALTH CARE:CHOICE OR CHANCE?. HE AND I HAD SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT SINCE MASSACHUSETTS IS UNDERGOING A LOT OF REFORM IN HEALTH CARE. WE TALKED ABOUT THE NEW MUNICIPALITIES BILL AND THE 2006 HEALTH REFORM LAW, ON WHICH OBAMACARE IS BASED.

YOU CAN WATCH SENATOR WOLF'S SHOW ON PUBLIC ACCESS TV AND YOU CAN CALL THE FOLLOWING TOWNS TO GET THE SCHEDULES. ALSO, THE SHOW WILL BE ON PODCAST IN SEPTEMBER AT http://www.tvyourhealthcare.org/.

BURLINGTON: (781)273-5922
WELLESLEY: (781)239-1444
SANDWICH: (508)888-6800
MASHPEE: (508)419-7450
CAPE MEDIA TOWNS: COTUIT, MARSTONS MILLS, OSTERVILLE, CENTERVILLE, HYANNIS, YARMOUTH, DENNIS AND CHATHAM, BARNSTABLE AND HARWICH. - (508)394-2388

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?

Today, July 13, Corine Mogenis and I rocked on my public access tv series, Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?. Corine joined me by phone from New Jersey to talk about her great medical book, Medical Tips from the Inside:Things You Need To Know, and I discussed Ellen In Medicaland:True Stories of How I Fell Down Medicine's Black Hole and Still Lived After All, which is on Kindle. Corine, a medical paralegal in New Jersey, has co-authored Medical Tips with Patricia Raya and gives superb information about how to obtain good health care.

Ellen In Medicaland, as you know, tells of my own Twilight Zonish experiences at a Harvard-teaching hospital as a patient with Stage 2 breast cancer and my Mom's caregiver. What Corine and I have in common is that we are both trying to help you navigate our very sick health system.

This segment of Your Health Care will be on local cable television, as well as on podcast on my website, http://www.tvyourhealthcare.org/, in August. I shall keep you posted when this program will be available to you.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Your Health Care:Choice or Chance

Yesterday, June 16, 2011, the king of health reform, Francis (Sandy) Eaton, R.N, and I rocked at the premiere shows of Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?. We did three shows back-to-back - fortified with some bubbly, of course, and a great crew in the person of our director, Jeff Clough.

Sandy and I decided to do three shows, back-to-back, because we just had so much to talk about in health care reform. Show #1 is about the Mass. Campaign for Single Payer Health Care; #2 is about Vermont and the Single Payer Plan that its legislature passed on May 26, 2011; and #3 is about that great organization National Nurses United and its fantastic convention in D.C on June 7, 2011.

To say that Sandy and I were a little bit zonked by the end of our conversations is an understatement. But doing these shows was worth it to us because nowhere else, except for Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?, are these topics being discussed at length. So, bravo to Sandy for taking the time to come to Mashpee to talk with me for more than two hours.

These shows will air on podcast on my website, www.tvyourhealthcare.org, by early July and will be on public access tv later in July. I shall keep everyone posted.

And I am very excited that on July 13, I shall be talking with Corine Mogenis by phone about her book, Medical Tips From The Inside: Things You Need To Know. Corine, a medical paralegal, co-authored the book with Patricia Raya, a nursing legal consultant. For the last two years, the duo also has had a show on Princeton TV called Medical Tips You Need To Know.

I shall keep everyone posted when this exciting program will air.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

ELLEN IN MEDICALAND

That terrific organization, MASS. CARE, has come out with its great newsletter, which is edited by the King of Health Reform himself, Francis (Sandy) Eaton, R.N. I am so pleased to report that Sandy has included a wonderful review of ELLEN IN MEDICALAND, which is on Kindle. Thanks a million, Sandy.

And, GREAT NEWS AGAIN: Sandy will be my premiere guest on Your Health Care:Choice or Chance? next Thursday, June 16. I shall keep you posted when it will air on my podcast at www.tvyourhealthcare.org.