Favorite and Helpful Links

PULSE of NY does not guarantee the accuracy or information of these websites but all sites listed have come highly recommended or we use regularly.

If You Have a Concern About Quality of Care

Complaints about Care

Helpful Numbers to Have
Adult Care and Assisted Living Complaints - 1-866-893-6772
Home Care and Hospice Complaints - 1-800-628-5972
Hospital Patient Care Complaints - 1-800-804-5447
Hospital and Diagnostic and Treatment Center Complaints - 1-800-804-5447
Laboratory Complaints - 1-800-682-6056
Medicaid Fraud Hotline - 1-877-87FRAUD
Managed Care Complaints - 1-800-206-8125
Nursing Home Patient Care Complaints - 1-888-201-4563
Professional Medical Conduct Complaints - 1-800-663-6114
The Joint Commission (800) 994-6610

Websites - New York

Center for Justice and Democracy
The Center for Justice & Democracy is a tax-exempt non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization that works to educate the public about the importance of the civil justice system and the dangers of so-called "tort reforms."
Center For Medical Consumers
The Center for Medical Consumers, a non profit 501(c) 3 advocacy organization, was founded in 1976 with ambitious goals. One was to provide access to accurate, science-based information so that consumers could participate more meaningfully in medical decisions that often have profound effects upon their health. Another was to hold medicine more accountable by revealing that much of the treatment advice proffered by doctors and other health professionals is based on little or no evidence of safety and effectiveness.
Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths
When I was Lt. Governor of New York State, I was horrified to hear about patients suffering from hospital infections. I heard from families struggling to understand how their loved one had been killed, instead of cured, by hospital care. That’s why I founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. RID is a non-profit organization dedicated to only one cause: saving lives
diagKNOWsis
You -- or a loved one -- have been diagnosed with a disease or condition you know very little about. Or perhaps you fear you have a medical problem and don't know what to do next. You may be worried or frightened. You may feel paralyzed by the news, and incapable of dealing with it. You have questions, and you are frustrated by your inability to get immediate answers.
Health Plan Navigator
Health Plan Navigator LLC is an organization of healthcare advocates who understand the nuances of the modern health insurance landscape. It doesn’t matter if you are a provider, a patient, or a corporation, if you are on this website, chances are that you have experienced the confusion and headaches that come with every hospital bill and insurance claims form.
IPRO
IPRO is an independent, not-for-profit corporation committed to assessing and improving the value of health care services received by consumers through the use of innovative methods and technologies.
Long Island Center for Independent Living
The Long Island Center for Independent Living, Inc. (LICIL) is a not-for-profit, non-residential advocacy center controlled by and serving persons with disabilities.
Metro ElderCare Agency
METRO ElderCare, LLC has been providing innovative solutions to our clients unique personal objectives. Our goal is to relieve the concerns and worries of our clients helping them seek the maximum amount of care and financial entitlements available to them. We pride ourselves in the care, attention and guidance we provide to our clients and their families.
New York State Government Website
Navigate the New York State website.
New York State Complaints About Care
Before calling any of these numbers listed, remember to keep accurate records of all correspondence.
New York State Department of Health
The New York State DOH works to protect and promote the health of New Yorkers through prevention, science and the assurance of quality health care delivery - www.health.state.ny.us. Mission Working together and committed to excellence, we protect and promote the health of New Yorkers through prevention, science and the assurance of quality health care delivery. Vision A community of professionals who, through a commitment to education, innovation, leadership in crises, customer respect and research solutions for health problems, make New Yorkers the healthiest people in the nation. Values Dedication to the public good, Innovation, Excellence, Integrity, Teamwork, Efficiency
New York State Insurance Department
The NYSID is responsible for supervising and regulating insurance business in New York State - www.ins.state.ny.us. The Insurance Department’s mission is to: Ensure the continued sound and prudent conduct of insurers’ financial operations; Provide fair, timely and equitable fulfillment of insurer obligations; Protect policyholders from financially impaired or insolvent insurers; Eliminate fraud, other criminal abuse and unethical conduct in the industry; and Foster growth of the insurance industry in the State.
Office of Professions
In 1891, medicine became the first profession licensed by the New York State Board of Regents. New York's unique system of professional regulation, recognized as a model for public protection, has grown to encompass nearly 750,000 practitioners and over 30,000 professional practice business entities in forty-eight professions.
The One and Only Campaign
The One & Only Campaign is a public health campaign, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Safe Injection Practices Coalition (SIPC), to raise awareness among patients and healthcare providers about safe injection practices. The campaign aims to eradicate outbreaks resulting from unsafe injection practices.
Patient and Family
New Yorkers for Patient & Family Empowerment is a patient-centered campaign to promote greater transparency and safety in healthcare. Our mission is to empower patients, their families and caregivers in interacting with the healthcare system, strengthen New Yorkers' access to information on issues important to patients, and improve healthcare quality and safety.

Out of Town

PULSE of FL
The intent is to improve: Patient Safety, Evidence-Based/Best-Practices Care, Hospital Acquired Infection Prevention Techniques and Better Disclosures of Adverse Events and Medical Errors
The Access Project
The Access Project (TAP), which was founded in 1998, is a resource center for local communities working to improve health and healthcare access.
Cautious Patient Foundation
Encouraging patients to respectfully engage with their doctors and participate in their healthcare for best results.
Colorado Citizens for Patient Safety
Citizens for Patient Safety is a global grassroots organization. Our agency builds alliances between and within diverse communities united in a common purpose by building bridges between consumers, the medical community, insurance and the legal community to improve the healthcare system and quality that patient's receive.
Compassion in Healthcare
Compassion in Healthcare is dedicated to restoring caring and compassion as core values and daily lived practices for all of our health professionals and institutions.
Consumermedsafety.org
ConsumerMedSafety.org is brought to you by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP)—the nation's only nonprofit organization of pharmacists, nurses, and doctors devoted entirely to safe medication practices. Preventing medication errors is no longer just a responsibility for health professionals—consumers like you can also play a vital role.
The Empowered Patient
Informing patients of their vital role in creating a smarter, safer health care system.
Institute For Safe Medication Practices
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), is the nation’s only 501c (3) nonprofit organization devoted entirely to medication error prevention and safe medication use.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent not-for-profit organization helping to lead the improvement of health care throughout the world. Founded in 1991 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, IHI works to accelerate improvement by building the will for change, cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care, and helping health care systems put those ideas into action.
The Joint Commission
An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 18,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.
MITSS, Medicaly Induced Trauma Support Services
Medically Induced Trauma Support Services (MITSS), Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in June of 2002 whose mission is “To Support Healing and Restore Hope” to patients, families, and clinicians who have been affected by an adverse medical event.
National Family Care Giver Association
The National Family Caregivers Association educates, supports, empowers and speaks up for the more than 65 million Americans who care for loved ones with a chronic illness or disability or the frailties of old age.
National Patient Safety Foundation
The National Patient Safety Foundation has been pursuing one mission since its founding in 1997 – to improve the safety of care provided to patients. As a central voice for patient safety, NPSF is committed to a collaborative, inclusive, multi-stakeholder approach in all that it does. NPSF is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
The Patient Pod
The Patient Pod is Patient Empowerment
- Educates you on how to have a good hospital experience
- Gives you tools for safety & comfort
- Preserves your humanity and identity
Safe Care Campaign
Safe Care Campaign was founded by Victoria and Armando Nahum in 2006 after 3 different members of their family were infected in 3 different hospitals in 3 different states in just 10 months’ time.
Sorry Works!
We are still all about disclosure - Sorry Works! We are much more than disclosure – we are The Works! ... We focus on the entire continuum of the patient/healthcare professional relationship, from start to finish. By focusing on the bigger picture, you can reduce risk and litigation, and increase safety and patient satisfaction.
Stop Hospital Infections
This site is designed to help you see how well your hospital, state and the nation as a whole are performing on three key practices that help prevent infections during surgery
Surgicalfire.org
It is for the purpose of awareness that the nonprofit Surgicalfire.org was created.

News, Facts and Studies

First Ever Local Area Health System Scorecard Finds Significant Differences in Access, Costs, Quality, and Outcomes Within States and Among Nation's Biggest Cities
March 14, 2012, New York, NY—Health care access, cost, quality, and outcomes can vary greatly from one community to the next—both within states and across states—depending on the performance of the health care system available to residents, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System. In the first scorecard measuring how 306 local U.S. areas are doing on key health care indicators such as insurance coverage, preventive care, and mortality rates, researchers at The Commonwealth Fund found significant differences between the best- and worst-performing localities. Major U.S. cities also showed wide disparities on many key measures of health care, with San Francisco and Seattle ranking among the top 75 local areas in the country, and Houston and Miami ranking in the bottom 75. An interactive map accompanying the report allows comparison of cities and communities across the U.S.
How Can Health Care Organizations Become More Health Literate? - Workshop Summary
July 18, 2012 Approximately 80 million adults in the United States have low health literacy – an individual’s ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information. Low health literacy creates difficulties in communicating with clinicians, poses barriers in managing chronic illness, lessens the likelihood of receiving preventive care, heightens the possibility of experiencing serious medication errors, increased risk of hospitalization, and results in poorer quality of life.
Medical board softer on doctors
August 20, 2012, ALBANY — The number of doctors who receive serious disciplinary actions from the state medical board has declined significantly since the mid-1990s, a Times Union analysis found. Even though more doctors are practicing in New York and patient complaints are rising, revocation and surrenders of medical licenses — the most severe actions — plummeted from a high of 184 in 1996 to 96 in 2011. At the same time, slap-on-the-wrist punishments called "censure and reprimands" almost tripled, from 34 to 99.
New Study: U.S. Ranks Last Among High-Income Nations on Preventable Deaths, Lagging Behind as Others Improve More Rapidly
September 23, 2011 — The United States placed last among 16 high-income, industrialized nations when it comes to deaths that could potentially have been prevented by timely access to effective health care, according to a Commonwealth Fund
Study Finds No Progress in Safety at Hospitals
Published: November 24, 2010
Efforts to make hospitals safer for patients are falling short, researchers report in the first large study in a decade to analyze harm from medical care and to track it over time. The study, conducted from 2002 to 2007 in 10 North Carolina hospitals, found that harm to patients was common and that the number of incidents did not decrease over time. The most common problems were complications from procedures or drugs and hospital-acquired infections.
New Patient Safety and Hospital Quality Data for 9 States Now Available at WhyNotTheBest.org
October 12, 2010—Comparative data on patient safety and hospital quality are available online for the first time, through WhyNotTheBest.org, The Commonwealth Fund's resource for reporting and comparing health care quality data. The new measures –developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, are available from data submitted by hospitals in nine states—Arizona, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Washington. It is the most up-to-date available for each state and is comprehensive, including information from all payers—Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.
Medicare Won’t Pay for Medical Errors
Published October 1, 2008
Beginning today, Medicare will stop paying hospitals for the added cost of treating patients who are injured in their care. Medicare has put 10 "reasonably preventable" conditions on its initial list, saying it will not pay when patients receive incompatible blood transfusions, develop infections after certain surgeries, or must undergo a second operation to retrieve a sponge left behind from the first. Serious bed sores, injuries from falls, and urinary tract infections caused by catheters are also on the list.
Medication Errors
Published July 20, 2006
Medication Errors Injure 1.5 Million People and Cost Billions of Dollars Annually; Report Offers Comprehensive Strategies for Reducing Drug-Related Mistakes
To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System
One study released in 1999 was that 44,000 to 98,000 people die every year in hospitals from preventable medical errors. Read the report here.
'What Did the Doctor Say?:' Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety
The Health Literacy and Patient Safety Roundtable met in May and September of 2005. The Roundtable was charged with framing the issues related to low health literacy and its impact on patient safety.
Study Casts Doubt on Claims That the Medical Malpractice System Is Plagued By Frivolous Lawsuits
Published May 10, 2006 The debate over medical malpractice litigation, which raged during the last presidential campaign, continues as a hot-button political and health care issue in the U.S.
Medical Error Fact Sheet
A comprehensive fact sheet of medical error studies.

Useful Websites

Drug Interactions Checker
Drug Interactions Checker A drug interaction occurs when the effect of a particular drug is altered when it is taken with another drug, or with food. The Drug Interactions Checker explains the mechanism of each drug interaction, the level of significance of the interaction (major, moderate or minor), and in certain cases, can provide the recommended course of action to manage the interaction. The Drug Interactions Checker will also display any interaction between your chosen drug(s) and food.
Consumer's Guide to HMO's
In this Interactive Consumer Guide to HMOs you will find easy-to-read tables comparing HMO performance and premiums, historical complaint data and tips on how to choose an HMO.

Looking for Care

Healthgrades
Hospital Ratings FREE to the public! Get access to quality ratings (1 to 5 stars) on the most popular medical conditions.
The Joint Commission Quality Check
Find a health care organization that meets The Joint Commission's patient safety and quality standards.
NY State Hospital Profile
Use this site to find information about hospitals in New York State, and the quality of care they provide.
NY State Physician Profiles
Here you will find information on all licensed doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy registered to practice in New York State. Information is self-reported by the physician