DC Medical Malpractice & Patient Safety Blog

All year, ProPublica, the public-interest investigative journalism organization, has been beefing up its service information for medical consumers. In recent months, we’ve covered its nursing home inspection reports, and its Facebook page for patients reporting medical harms.

Last week, ProPublica introduced a new site where medical consumers and medical providers can participate in ongoing conversations about patient safety, get updates and share opinions and personal stories.

It’s promoted as a central clearing house for information ranging from highlights of the Facebook patient harm group to links to reporting on health care quality to tools consumers can use to research health-care providers.

Among the offerings:

• six recommendations for what to do if you’ve suffered harm in a medical facility;


• an interview with cancer surgeon/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researcher Dr. Marty Makary about why patient harm is one of the leading causes of death in America. His new book is “Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care”;


• advice about how to deal with the media in telling your story from Helen Haskell, founder of Mothers Against Medical Error;


• advice for finding unexpected allies as a patient advocate from Patty Skolnick, founder of Citizens for Patient Safety;


• a music video about being over-prescribed pills.