Project Patient Care
Using the voice of the patient to improve care locally, nationally, and globally
Our MISSION
The mission is to engage consumers as partners in healthcare and mobilize diverse healthcare stakeholders to provide the best possible care to every patient every time, by eliminating preventable harm and implementing systemic change to ensure consistent excellence.
Project Patient Care is an independent nonprofit organization working to prevent medical errors and continuously improve healthcare quality. We are a diverse community of patients, family members of patients, healthcare professionals and organizational leaders. We care deeply about ensuring that every patient gets the right care at the right time.
Patient Safety Matters
Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in this country according to a 2016 study by Johns Hopkins researchers right behind heart disease and cancer:
Heart Disease –611,105*
Cancer – 584,881*
Medical Errors – 251,454**
Chronic Respiratory Disease - 149,205*
Citations:
* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Leading Cause of Death in 2013
** “Medical Error – The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US”; BMJ
2016;353:i2139
Strategic Partnerships
To Solve Patient-Care Challenges
Project Patient Care leaders work with other organizations, patients, families, and consumers in a variety of formal and informal ways to advance patient-centered, systems-based care.
Meet Our board
Our multinational team combines experience with passion, creativity, and dedication. Our team works from our three global offices. From rural back roads to corporate boardrooms, is committed to supporting our clients and investors.
Martin Hatlie, J.D.
President
Cynthia Barnard
Secretary
Ph.D., M.B.A., M.S.J.S
Regina Greer-Smith
Treasurer; Chair of Finance and Audit Committee
M.P.H., FACHE
Don Aronson
Chair of Governance Committee
M.D., J.D., M.P.H
David Chess, M.D.
Board Member
Michael Millenson
Board Member
Key Staff contacts
We've got a top notch team!
Martin Hatlie, J.D.
President
Mr. Hatlie is also co-founder of Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (www.patientsafety.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the role of the consumer as partner in pursuing healthcare that is safe, compassionate and just.
Drawing on experience as a civil rights attorney, malpractice defense litigator, lobbyist and coalition-builder, Mr. Hatlie is active in both public and organizational policy development on patient safety, litigation reform and patient safety issues. Mr. Hatlie works extensively with consumers and organizations to foster the cultural paradigm shift necessary to support a patient-centered, systems-based approach to the delivery of healthcare services.
He was a lobbyist for the American Medical Association for many years. In 1996, he was instrumental in developing the first Annenberg Conference on Patient Safety. In1997, he coordinated the establishment of the National Patient Safety Foundation and served as its founding Executive Director (1997-99). From 2000 through 2002, Hatlie served as the National Chair of VHA Inc.’s Accelerated Learning Initiative on Patient Safety, working with VHA member hospitals across the country.
Mr. Hatlie is the co-editor of the Patient Safety Handbook (Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2003), a leading textbook in the field of patient safety. He has authored numerous articles addressing patient safety and medical liability issues. Among other activities, p4ps develops case based training tools exploring systems problems that produce adverse patient events. Its interactive educational programs, the First Do No Harm® video series, developed in partnership with the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions, are used widely throughout the world.
Mr. Hatlie currently serves on the Leapfrog Group Board of Directors, the Joint Commission Patient Safety Advisory Group, and the Board of Advisors of Parents of Infants and Children with Kernicterus. He also serves on the Steering Committee of Patients for Patient Safety, an action area of the World Health Organization’s World Alliance on Patient Safety. Hatlie has organized and facilitated patient safety workshops for the World Health Organization across the globe.
Previously, Mr. Hatlie was a member of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Session on Medical Error and served on the boards of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, the Physician Insurers Association of America and the American Tort Reform Association. He was the Founding Chair of both the Health Care Liability Alliance and the National Medical Liability Reform Coalition – both are Washington, D.C.-based coalitions that advocate civil justice and patient safety reform.
Mr. Hatlie is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and Illinois.
Contact: mhatlie@p4ps.net
Pat Merryweather
Executive Director
Pat Merryweather serves as Executive Director of Project Patient Care (PPC) where she is a co-leader of all PPC initiatives, including its work in federal healthcare transformation, advocating authentic patient and family engagement across all healthcare settings, and PPC organizational development activities.
Prior to joining PPC, Pat served as the Executive Director of the Illinois, Iowa, and Colorado Medicare Quality Improvement Organization programs for Telligen from 2011 to November, 2016. She implemented measurable quality care improvement initiatives of the federal government and developed collaborative learning and action networks aimed at improving individual and resident patient care; integrated care delivery systems; and prevention of disease and disease advancement. Partner with hospitals, nursing homes, home health, physician practices, and patients and families along with their trade associations, professional organizations, and government and non-governmental organizations.
As the Senior Vice President with the Illinois Hospital Association for 26 years, Pat was the healthcare information and health care quality and policy liaison with local, state, and national public and private organizations. Pat also had the responsibility for development and all management aspects of COMPdata (on-line comparative information network) and performance measurement development and services in Illinois and five other states. Pat also developed and managed the on-line consumer resource, Illinois Hospitals Caring for You web site. Pat developed and implemented the Quality Care Institute (QCI) that was built on existing hospital and IHA quality and safety initiatives and designed to promote innovative programs for measurably improving the quality of patient care.
Her volunteer commitments include extensive work with Rotary International, where she serves in various leadership roles and has been directly involved in community and provider assessments, strategic planning, and project implementation. Her Rotary volunteer work is done locally and globally as she has worked on health care, solar energy, peace building, and women enterprise projects in Chicago, Jordan, India, China, Dominican Republic, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Panama, Mexico, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and American Samoa.
Pat serves on several health care and community boards locally, nationally, and internationally and is a frequent presenter at local, national, and international meetings.
Contact: pmerryweather@p4ps.net
