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'You Are Your Own Best Medicine' bridges link between providers, patients

By
Lori Sorenson

Medical errors are estimated to be the third leading cause of death in the United States, and local health care professionals are working to improve those outcomes.
A health care safety class, “You Are Your Own Best Medicine,” on Nov. 21 in Luverne illustrates that patient involvement in their care goes a long way toward reducing medical errors.
”So many people assume they’re safe when they go to get care,” said Lisa Juliar. “But we continue to learn more about how many errors take place in our complex healthcare systems.”
Juliar, St. Paul, will share her story about a breast cancer misdiagnosis that wasn’t discovered until several weeks after a lumpectomy.
The error and the hospital’s response led her to become a patient advocate and eventually join the nonprofit Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety.
“Nobody goes into medicine intending to harm; the intent is always to help,” she told the Star Herald Friday.
“But what you find is that the system is so complex, there’s a potential for mistakes.”
Thursday’s class is from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Blue Mound Room at Sanford Luverne, which is co-sponsoring the event with MAPS.
“We teach patient safety to our staff and also encourage our patients to be involved in their health care,” said registered nurse Deb Wynia, who coordinates performance improvement at Sanford Luverne.
“We encourage them to ask questions or ask for a better explanation if they do not understand or question something related to their health.”
Wynia reached out to Juliar about sharing the MAPS curriculum, but Juliar offered to come down to teach the class because of the opportunity to reach a broad group of providers all at once.
“I’m really excited about this, because often a hospital will do this work, or a nursing home will do this work, but in Luverne, all have been invited,” Juliar said.
“One of the most difficult times for patients and providers is during transitions of care. … A hospital does it one way, a nursing home does it another, and hopefully everyone is communicating.”
The person best situated to bridge the gap is the patient, Wynia said.
“The message I hope we get out to the public is to be involved in your health care, know why you are taking your meds and ask questions about your diagnosis,” she said.
At Sanford Luverne, she said staff members are asked to report “good catches” that could have caused harm but were prevented.
“In doing this we look at our processes and make improvements if needed,” Wynia said.
Also, she helped start a “Safe Transition” team to communicate care between the hospital and nursing homes or the hospital and homecare.
Juliar said the people most likely to get involved in preventing medical errors are patients who have had poor outcomes, but she said the intent is to educate people before this happens.
“Nobody pays attention to it until it’s too late,” she said. “And, of course, I’ve had my own experience with a medical error, so that’s why I’m doing this.”
She applauded Sanford and the Luverne community for organizing the Nov. 21 class.
“We’ve always said most errors don’t happen on an individual level, but rather as a system,” Juliar said.
“It’s really courageous for the hospital to host the class. When healthcare leaders and patients/residents come together to discuss challenges, it can create a very powerful learning opportunity for everyone.”
Depending on the outcome of Thursday’s class, she said MAPS may replicate the community approach in other parts of the state.
“You can be the first ones to let us know if it is of value to a community,” she said.
Register for the class at Luverne Community Education by Monday, Nov. 18. Cost is $5, which includes a light meal. Call 507-283-4724.

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