2010 Accomplishments
This past year has been filled with new relationships, innovations, infrastructure and a very focused mission. Because of our generous donors, we were able to achieve many milestones for the Foundation. Below is a snapshot of our 2010 activities:
Development of the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation logo, identity mark and website in collaboration with Gray Web Technology and Design.
Medical professionals and patients can find resources and join a community of individuals that care about preventing medical errors online at www.louisebatz.org. The logo design is based on one of my mom’s favorite traditional Oaxacan Mexican dresses. Our family has called San Antonio home since the 1800’s and she loved to celebrate the city’s history and passion for life. The dress always symbolized happiness and love and now we hope that our logo will provide that same feeling for others.
Creation of our Medical Advisory Board, Foundation Advisory Board, and the Board of Directors.
Our advisory boards consist of doctors, nurses, professors, Chief Medical and Nursing Officers with many years of experience in their respective fields. Our leaders share a passion and conviction for improving patient safety and were instrumental in the development of The Batz Guide. Our Board of Directors is an outstanding group of individuals from San Antonio and across the country and we are honored to work with them to accomplish our mission.
Publishing The Batz Guide for Bedside Advocacy “Teaming Up for the Patient”.
Medical terminology is often times very difficult to understand. The guide is meant to help patients and their loved ones ask potentially life-saving questions in a language that they and their medical teams can all understand. The purpose of the guide is to keep patients safe. It is filled with over 70 pages of questions, tips and worksheets and is available on our website for download.
Presentation of the Health 2.0 Challenge Award.
Over the past year, our foundation has been working closely with Ringful Health and Dr. Vishal Kancheria of the North Austin Medical Center. We have developed a pain care mobile application that helps chronic pain patients to better manage their symptoms and medications; and better communicate with their physicians in hopes of properly treating patients and reducing the risk of medical errors. Health 2.0 (a group focused on highlighting technology advances in medicine) announced this fall that Ringful Health’s Pain Care application won the “Project HealthDesign” developer challenge sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and California Healthcare Foundation.
Formation of the San Antonio Safety Collaborative (SASC).
The catalyst for this movement was the tragic death of Louise H. Batz, who suffered a medication error while on Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA). The Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation met with San Antonio hospital systems to present research on the risks of PCA and the need for improving PCA safety in our community. After these meeting, the group was formed in late 2009 and includes a multidisciplinary group of representatives from several San Antonio hospital systems. Meetings included a review of all PCA literature, resource sharing, and discussions about risk reduction strategies. In October of 2010, the SASC released guidelines surrounding the use of PCA. This collaboration demonstrates that if we can all work together as a team, we can reduce preventable medical errors. It is a great feeling to know that patients will be so much safer now because of the adoption of the PCA safety collaborative guidelines. The Foundation is very proud of this accomplishment.