IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Patient Safety Movement Foundation announced today that President Bill Clinton, Founder of the Clinton Foundation & 42^nd President of the United States, will deliver the keynote address at the 4^th annual World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit, January 22-23, 2016 at Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort and Spa, Dana Point, California. This is the 4^th year that President Clinton has participated in the Summit.

“Our Patient Safety Movement began as a commitment to zero preventable deaths by 2020 at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in 2012.,” stated Joe Kiani, Founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. “This summit is not just about information - it’s about commitment and action. We confront the biggest patient safety challenges and co-develop and share tested solutions that can dramatically improve patient safety and significantly reduce cost of care. We are honored to have leading institutions from many countries join the movement including Brazil, England, Germany, Mexico, Scotland, and Spain. The exciting part is that this global movement has saved many lives in a relatively short amount of time and we are just beginning to see the results of many of the commitments.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately one in ten patients are harmed while receiving hospital care in a developed country. Hundreds of millions of patients are affected worldwide each year. Medical errors are the 3^rd leading cause of death in the United States. WHO notes that 20%-40% of all health spending is wasted due to poor-quality care. Safety studies show that additional hospitalization, litigation costs, infection acquired in hospitals, disability, lost productivity and medical expenses cost some countries as much as $19 billion annually, and in the US, a whopping one trillion dollars. Industries with a perceived higher risk such as aviation have a much better safety record than health care – 1 in 1 million chance of a traveler being harmed while in an aircraft compared to 1 in 300 chance of a patient being harmed during health care.

To date, healthcare professionals and hospital administrators that represent over 1,400 healthcare organizations have made public commitments through the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. More than 40 health technology companies have made a public pledge to share their data in the pursuit of good business practices and patient safety. For more information on the organizations that have provided commitments or pledges, please visit www.patientsafetymovement.org/commitments.

At the 2016 Summit in January 22, and 23, attendees will announce commitments and review the latest Actionable Patient Safety Solutions (APSS). Two new patient safety challenges will be addressed: airway safety and optimizing obstetric safety. Emergent emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU) hospital airway intubations are high-risk procedures in which failure can result in preventable death or permanent disability impacting children, adults and seniors. The incidence of failed airways can be as high as 1 in 50 in the ED and ICU setting and the occurrence of death or brain damage have been reported to be 38 fold (ED) to 58 fold (ICU) higher than OR settings. In addition, inadvertent or premature extubations can also lead to death or severe disability. The second challenge, according to the Centers for Disease Control, kills approximately 650 women each year during or shortly after giving birth. The rate of maternal mortality in the US has nearly doubled in the last 20 years. The most common preventable conditions resulting in severe maternal morbidity or mortality are obstetric hemorrhage, severe hypertension, and infection.

This year the Patient Safety Movement, in addition to the Humanitarian Awards, will also present three winners of the 2015 Patient Safety Movement Innovation Award. The winners will receive prizes totaling $85,000 for process or product innovations that will make significant strides toward eliminating preventable deaths in hospitals.

For more information, please visit the Patient Safety Movement Foundation website. Members of the media may request press pass by visiting http://www.cvent.com/d/brqylj/4W or by contacting Irene Paigah - phone (858) 859-7001 or email irene@paigah.com

About The Patient Safety Movement Foundation
More than 3,000,000 people worldwide, and 200,000 people in the US die every year hospitals in ways that could have been prevented. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation was established through the support of the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare, to reduce that number of preventable deaths to 0 by 2020 (0X2020) in the US and dramatically worldwide. Improving patient safety will require a collaborative effort from all stakeholders, including patients, healthcare providers, medical technology companies, government, employers, and private payers. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation works with all stakeholders to address the problems and solutions of patient safety. The Foundation also convenes annual Patient Safety, Science and Technology summits that are by invitation only. The next summit will be held January 22-23, 2016 in Dana Point, CA and will bring together some of the world’s best minds for thought-provoking discussions and new ideas to challenge the status quo. By presenting specific, high-impact actionable solutions to meet patient safety challenges, encouraging medical technology companies to share the data for which their products are purchased, and asking hospitals to make commitments to implement Actionable Patient Safety Solutions, the Foundation is working toward zero preventable deaths by 2020. Visit www.patientsafetymovement.org.

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