Lori Nerbonne, an RN formerly from Bow, and retired co-founder of New England Patient Voices, lives in Biddeford, Maine.

Mr. John Rodgers’ recent My Turn, “NH patients, and families, deserve better” is a gift to The New Hampshire Hospital Association, Healthcare Leaders, policy and lawmakers.

Who are we as a community, state or nation if we don’t work to protect our most vulnerable? Aging seniors are as vulnerable and at-risk (if not more-so) as pediatric patients when they enter a hospital, but they are too often not afforded the same safe and cautious care, environment or support. Normal sensory changes of aging alone put them at high risk. Many arrive alone or by ambulance and don’t have a loved one or advocate by their side to help them articulate their needs or concerns. Multiple medications, their side effects, drug interactions, cognitive changes, environments that trigger delirium (lack of sleep, new medications, bright lights, beeping alarms, etc.) and many other realities add to these patient safety risks.

Common knowledge in medicine is that older patients run the risk of decompensating more quickly, when their medical needs are not promptly attended to. Recent evidence shows that every hour an elderly patient spends waiting in an ER adds to their risk of dying (JAMA).

Mr. Rodger’s well written My Turn also spoke to the business side of healthcare that is compounding this problem: hospitals and contracted physician groups (ER, radiology and others) owned by profit-driven investors, and RN/patient staffing ratios that can be outright dangerous on nights, weekends or holidays.

The Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA) recently provided evidence of this. A large volume study of over 4,500,000 hospitalizations showed that hospital-acquired adverse events or conditions including falls and infections increased by approximately 25% after hospitals’ were acquired by private equity businesses compared with control hospitals.

Two Office of Inspector General (OIG) large volume studies over the past ten years found that nearly 15,000 Medicare patients die of largely preventable causes in U.S. hospitals every month.

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Over the past 20 years, I have worked with many of these families, listened to their stories and tried my best to raise their voices so they are heard, acknowledged and acted upon. Why? To prevent them from happening again.

Those who have earned or been given the honor of leadership positions and elected officials have the power to change these realities. My hope is they will begin every patient safety, quality improvement, hospital board and state policy-making committee meeting with a reading of Mr. Rodger’s My Turn Then ask themselves ‘what are we doing about these things?’ And then commit to actions for change.