OUR POLICY PLAN
What’s the plan? And what do we do next to make it happen?
Those are the two most frequently asked questions that we hear from people all over the country, and around the world, as we all continue to reel from the devastating impact of patient injustice and physicians killing patients because they want to.
This is our plan. It is a start. It is a living document that will be improved upon and developed daily. It was written with support and guidance from a dozen leading policy experts, activists, and impacted families. Money, God complex, paternalism and corruption are no doubt at the center of patient injustice in the healthcare setting, but do not confuse the presence of these evils with simplicity. These systems are complex, deeply entrenched, and took hundreds of years and millions of laws and policies to create. Dismantling them, and replacing them with something imaginative and redemptive will be the work of our lives. But together, step by step, we can do this.
Advocate
We have your back. We step in to advocate and make hospitals see your view when they do not agree and push you to their own paid patient advocate.
Enforce
Hospitals do not care about your living will if you are end of life. They can unilaterally on their own put a DNR and ignore it if they want. They will not try and save your life if they deem you to have un curable cancer. They use the analogy if the house is burning why save the door. We are here to put their feet to the fire to help you and your family.
Organize
We can and will mobilize quickly to persuade hospital administration when time matters and you need to pressure the hospital to give your loved one food or water artificailly in accordance with their wishes.
COMMUNITIES OUTREACH TO EDUCATE
We will set up local chapters for community outreach
We will set up local attorneys in each state to offer free legal services to the vulnerable
ESTABLISH INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT
Establish civilian oversight committees with subpoena powers over physicians with powers to investigate and discipline acts of physicians and patient deaths independently.
HOLD PHYSICIANS, NURSES, ETHICISTS AND HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTABLE
Establish laws making it illegal for hospitals to hire physicians or nurses who were previously fired or who resigned while being investigated for serious misconduct.
Do not allow a physician and director of a unit to also be the director of the ethics committee. It needs to be a neutral person.
Establish public data systems to track critical information re: patient deaths resulting when ethics committes are involved to fact check and investigate
Require any physician or nurse whom a patient dies on their shift to submit to a mandatory drug and alcohol test within one hour of the shooting.
Unseal and make public all records of physician and nurse misconduct and complaints against physician and nurses
Eliminating physicians’ ability to review evidence before submitting to an investigation
Allowing for the investigation of all civilian complaints, regardless of when filed
Prohibiting the destruction of personnel files and complaints
Ending arbitration after internal discipline occurs
Grant media and family immediate access to all evidence.
End the doctrine of internal futility policies and require court order to go against a living will
In all deaths when the ethics committee is involved to require autopsies independent of the county
REFORM INTERNAL HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION
Educate on the double theory of some sedative drugs and how they can hasten death
Inform about the infection rate of catheters etc
Inform about drug interactions that physicians and nurses do not consider
Create a task force for Federal Review with every physician involved death