MedStar Executive Leads Trek to Camden Yards as Part of 3,000-Mile Cross-Country Walk

Patient Safety Movement Foundation CEO and MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety Executive Director continues to shed light on patient and health worker safety ahead of World Patient Safety Day

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Starting this morning through next week, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation’s CEO and MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety Executive Director Dr. Dave Mayer will continue the next leg of the 3,000-mile Dave’s Virtual Walk Across America for Healthcare Safety on the East Coast. Dr. Mayer is raising awareness for patient and health worker safety with this next leg of his journey, leading up to World Patient Safety Day on September 17, 2020.

As an avid baseball fan, Dr. Mayer themed his journey around the sport and is walking to baseball stadiums across the country. When he first started doing his walk in the Spring, baseball was cancelled for the season, due to coronavirus. Dr. Mayer is looking forward to walking to and from stadiums now that baseball is underway again.

He will be joined by MedStar Health associates as he begins a two-day trek from the Columbia headquarters to Camden Yards, stopping at Maryland Patient Safety Center offices on Friday, where he serves as the Board Chair.

“Bringing awareness to patient and health worker safety and making changes within the health system to prevent death from medical error is now, more than ever, a cause that demands attention given current conditions with the coronavirus pandemic,” he says. “As the third leading cause of death in the U.S.—taking more than 200,000 lives each year—medical error should have more general awareness, yet the average person is actually quite unaware of the dangers that exist and how to advocate for their own safety.”

After walking in Baltimore, Dr. Mayer plans to walk in DC next week, starting at Arlington Cemetery with stops at the White House and the Capital Building before finishing at Nationals Park. He’s completed walks in Phoenix, Denver, Milwaukee, and Chicago, and plans to complete 3,000 miles over the course of his journey, essentially walking across the United States finishing sometime in early 2021.

Dave’s Virtual Walk Across America for Healthcare Safety will continue during the summer; additional public walks will be announced on Twitter at @WalkForPtSafety, so be sure to follow along for updates. To show support you can donate to Dave’s Walk, which supports the PSMF, here: http://patient.sm/davesteam. To learn more about the Patient Safety Movement Foundation #uniteforsafecare campaign and the upcoming World Patient Safety Day on September 17, 2020, please visit uniteforsafecare.org.

About the Patient Safety Movement Foundation

Each year, more than 200,000 people die unnecessarily in U.S. hospitals. Worldwide, 4.8 million lives are similarly lost. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) is a global non-profit on a mission to eliminate preventable patient deaths from medical errors. PSMF uniquely brings patients and patient advocates, healthcare providers, medical technology companies, government, employers, and private payers together under the same cause. From our Actionable Patient Safety Solutions and industry Open Data Pledge to our World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit and more, PSMF won’t stop fighting until we achieve zero.

For more information, please visit www.patientsafetymovement.org.