EUGENE–University of Oregon Professor Judith Hibbard says more Americans die every year as a result of medical errors than in automobile accidents.

Hibbard, a UO professor of planning, public policy and management, should know. She’s one of a handful of people working on key national initiatives to improve the quality of medical care in the United States.

She is a member of an expert panel advising the National Health Care Quality Forum, which is providing leadership in the effort to measure and report health care quality.

Hibbard also is serving on a National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine committee to design a national report on the quality of medical care. The national quality report will be designed to track progress in the improvement of medical care in different regions of the country.

The UO professor is concerned that not all Americans get the same kind of health care.

"There is ample evidence that there are serious and widespread problems throughout American medicine. The quality of medical care is highly variable even within communities. Some people are getting the highest quality of care, while others are not," she says.

Hibbard believes three areas need special attention to insure that all Americans receive the best and safest health care possible.

First, reduce mistakes by instituting systems that safeguard against errors.

Second, set up incentives and supports that help physicians incorporate the vast amount of emerging new medical knowledge into the care they deliver. In many cases, she says, the most effective treatments are not used, resulting in unnecessary death and disability.

Finally, she argues that consumers and employers can help improve their own health care by using available information that compares the quality of the medical care in health plans and then using that information to make choices about where to get medical care.

That information is now available in several national publications. Both Consumer Reports and U.S. News & World Report, for example, publish lists of the 100 best hospitals and highest quality health plans in the country. Medicare information also is available at the Medicare web site at http://www.medicare.gov/comparison/default.asp.

Hibbard contends that if all employers and consumers used this information before making medical choices, health care providers would respond by improving the care they deliver.

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