Patient-Centered Care to Avoid Malpractice

I was recently invited to attend a conference in Toronto this October, on refocusing health care to be patient-centered.  The invitation was kind, but I have to wonder:  What else should health care be centered on, if not the patient?

That we need national conferences to refocus health care onto patients is an eloquent testimony that our medical system continues to fail patients.

A recent authoritative study in the United States found that 44% of adverse events in hospital are preventable, due to medical errors and substandard care, and cost the US government $4.4 billion a year.  There is no reason to think things in Canada are any better.

Conferences on patient-centered care are a great idea, but I wonder if this will ever happen without voters getting riled up and forcing the politicians to take dramatic action.