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The human cost of medical errors is high. In fact, more people die from medical mistakes each year than from highway accidents, breast cancer or AIDS.

Your personal safety awareness is essential to preventing dangerous medical errors. That is why Aetna provides a variety of resources to improve your health care safety.

Aetna Pharmacy Website
According to the National Institute of Medicine, medication errors cause about 7,000 deaths per year. To counter this danger, Aetna Pharmacy Management offers "My Medication Inventory" a printer-friendly form to help you keep track of your medications. Use this tool to help your doctor identify potential problems. Aetna Pharmacy also posts up-to-date drug news and information on medications and patient safety.

Aetna Navigator™ Hospital Comparison Tool
Advice from the National Patient Safety Foundation: To ensure a safer experience with the health care system, become involved with and informed about your treatment. Seek information about illnesses or conditions that affect you, research options and possible treatment plans and choose a doctor, clinic, pharmacy and hospital experienced in the care you require.

To make this process easier, Aetna offers the Aetna Navigator Hospital Comparison Tool that provides information to help you compare hospitals based on procedure or diagnosis. Enter information into this easy-to-use tool and receive a report comparing hospitals in your area. The tool also contains additional information about patient safety.

MedQuery^®
Many Aetna members benefit from the MedQuery program, delivered through an Aetna subsidiary, ActiveHealth Management, Inc. This program works behind the scenes by examining information received from care providers and alerting your doctor to potential gaps, omissions or errors in your care. For some customers, a Member Messaging component notifies members directly of gaps or omissions in addition to notifying the treating doctor.

Patient Safety Tips
Print out our Patient Safety Tips (PDF: 170 KB / 3 pages) checklist and take it with you when you visit your doctor. It offers practical suggestions to help you have a positive health care experience.

Additional Safety Resources
The following organizations provide patient safety information:

• The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations features patient safety tips on their SpeakUp website.
  
• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality provides information on many health-related topics.
  
• The Commission on Cancer offers information on programs approved through their review process.
  
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research offers educational materials on medication safety.
  
• The Leapfrog Group is a group of Fortune 500 companies and other large private and public health care purchasers focused on helping people make more informed health care choices and encouraging patient safety. The Leapfrog Group provides information on health care quality to help people compare hospitals.