Reaching the goal of zero preventable deaths in healthcare settings is "within our grasp," Vice President Joe Biden said during the Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit in Irvine, Calif., over the weekend.
Vice President Biden and former President Bill Clinton served as keynote speakers at the event, hosted by the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.
"This is the time to double down on your commitment to patient safety," Vice President Biden told attendees, which included physicians, nurses, patient safety experts and hospital executives, according to Kaiser Health News. "We've gone from accepting the inevitable to showing what's absolutely within our wheelhouse to be able to change."
Vice President Biden noted that the industry is shifting and paying more attention to care quality and patient safety, which he said wasn't the case in the past. "Up until now, our healthcare system, in my humble opinion, hasn't sufficiently linked quality…with safety," he said, according to KHN. "Not enough time has been focused on keeping bad things from happening."
President Clinton highlighted the importance of transparency in the industry. "There is no point in hiding facts because, if we don't know, how are we going to fix it?" he asked during his speech, according to the Orange County Register.
The Patient Safety Movement Foundation is focused on reducing the number of preventable deaths to zero by 2020. See more on the organization here.