Table at the Fair
I set up a table at Senator Kemp Hannon’s Senior Health
Fair to distribute literature to the people (mostly over 60) who might be
interested in patient safety. PULSE of
NY, now called Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education & Advocacy, has
had a table there for many years and it has proven to be a wonderful networking
event. We have always been grateful to
Senator Hannon for including us in this lively community event.
For
years it was a great opportunity for me to spend time with my parents who have
been volunteers for 20 years, then just my mother, and now with them in
Florida, it’s a chance to spend time with other Pulse volunteers as we meet the
community.
Ideally, I suppose, we are supposed to be making the
community aware of our services and how we can help. Instead each year it seems
to be a bigger and better event for older folks to go trick or treating. Just before Halloween the tables are piled
with give-aways like pens, back scratchers, hand sanitizers and yes, lots of
candy. Some of the merchants even joke
about who has the best candy and we find it fun to swap!
After all these years of setting up tables at fairs, it’s
hard to imagine the best way to approach people about patient safety. Why isn’t the public more interested in becoming
an involved patient? The people on
either side of me who worked for an insurance company and another nonprofit
each had personal stories of medical care that would fall under patient safety
or medical injury. They got it - but had
no plans to share their experience so others could learn from it. They suffered in silence. What is the shame?
If we say “medical error” is there automatic blame? I can assure you that when there is a medical
injury, 100% of the time there is a patient involved but yet still patients are
left out of the conversation. That has
to change! Always looking for
suggestions how.
