Patient Safety

These families’ stories of harm in the health care system inspire Consumer Watchdog’s work to improve patient safety, help injured patients get justice and hold those who commit medical malpractice accountable.Meet the families fighting for injured patients.
HOW MALPRACTICE CAPS TAKE AWAY PATIENT RIGHTS

In 1975, California politicians capped compensation for patients injured by medical negligence at $250,000. Forty-five years after it was enacted, the cap has never been adjusted for inflation. It is worth less than $50,000 today. The cap prevents many patients from ever getting justice, and deepens the racial inequalities in the health care system, disproportionately harming low income patients, communities of color, women and children. More about caps.
FAIRNESS FOR INJURED PATIENTS ON THE BALLOT

The families of children permanently harmed by medical negligence have qualified the Fairness for Injured Patients Act (FIPA) initiative for the November 2022 California ballot. Learn more and sign up to support the measure to update the cap and restore patients’ access to justice.
HOLDING MEDICAL PROVIDERS ACCOUNTABLE

The Medical Board of California is responsible for regulating doctors in the state of California. Their mandate is patient protection. Yet, for four decades, the Board has failed to protect patients, allowing negligent doctors who repeatedly harm or even kill their patients to continue practicing with impunity. Learn more about Consumer Watchdog’s fights in the legislature and at the Medical Board to hold doctors accountable and make patients safe.
PATIENT RIGHT TO KNOW

California became the first state in the nation to require doctors to disclose before a patient’s appointment if they are on probation for sexual assault or other serious misconduct. The law was blocked by the medical lobby until the MeToo movement helped ensure the voices of survivors of physician sexual assault were heard. Read about the victory for patient safety.
OPIOID OVERPRESCRIBING

A seven-year battle by a father who lost his young children to reckless overprescribing culminated in a mandate for California doctors to review a patient’s prescription history before prescribing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.
Read about the win.
Meet the Pack family.