Three years ago, at Los Angeles’ Cedar-Sinai Medical Center actor Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins fought for their lives for two days after receiving an accidental overdose of the blood-thinning drug heparin. Though Quaid’s children have since recovered and are reportedly healthy, the actor has taken to shining a spotlight on the issues of patient safety and medical errors.
A reported 100,000 deaths occur each year as a result of preventable medical errors and another 100,000 deaths are linked to hospital infections. Given these staggering numbers and the trauma he experienced personally, Dennis Quaid will help bring these issues to the public’s attention through his new documentary “Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm.”
After three years of appearing at hospital safety conferences and on television programs the actor has merged his Quaid Foundation with patient safety expert and physician Charles Denham’s TMIT. Together the partnership will air the documentary on The Discovery Channel and, to make sure they reach their target audience, send free copies to over 5,700 hospitals across the nation. The pair hopes to urge medical facilities to adopt and enforce safer practices and guidelines developed by the National Quality Forum.
Quaid and Denham’s documentary can be seen May 1st and May 8th at 8:00am on The Discovery Channel or streamed on the web at www.discoveryhealthcme.com.
