After Close Call, Actor Dennis Quaid Takes On Medical Mistakes

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USA Today: After nearly losing twin newborns to a medical mistake - adult doses of blood thinners were given to the infants - actor Dennis Quaid has taken up the cause of shedding light on the often invisible issues surrounding patient safety.

"Quaid has become the self-described 'frontman' for a campaign to improve patient care with the implementation of 'safe practices' as simple as hand-washing and the use of technologies such as bar codes to match medications to patients.

After the overdose that nearly killed his twins, Quaid said, Cedars-Sinai 'stepped up to the plate and spent millions of dollars on bedside bar codes.'" And he and his wife, Kimberly, created the Quaid Foundation, which has merged with the Texas Medical Institute of Technology, an Austin-based research organization" (Rubin, 4/12).

This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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