| In
a speech at the NAACP |
| Bush laments
poor Republican relations with blacks |
agencies
President
George W. Bush lamented the poor relationship
between blacks and his Republican Party on Thursday
in his first address to America's leading civil
rights organization since taking office in 2001.
Bush drew roars of approval from members of the
NAACP at their 97th annual convention when he
criticized his party, which is campaigning to
keep control of Congress in November elections,
for writing off the black vote in the past.
"
I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham
Lincoln let go of its historic ties to the African
American community," Bush said. "For
too long my party wrote off the African American
vote and many African Americans wrote off the
Republican Party," he said.
"
That history has prevented us from working together
when we agree on great goals. It's not good for
our country," said Bush, who received only
9 percent of the black vote in the 2000 presidential
election and 10 percent in 2004.
Black Americans mostly side with Democrats
and fault Republicans for ignoring their
needs. That
impression was reinforced by the bungled
Bush administration response to Hurricane
Katrina
and its aftermath last August and September.
"
We'll work together, and as we do so, you must
understand I understand that racism still lingers
in America. It's a lot easier to change a law
than to change a human heart. And I understand
that many African Americans distrust my political
party," Bush said.
RACE CARD
The NAACP sought to defeat Bush's re-election
bid in 2004, accusing Republicans of "playing
the race card in election after election."
Bush called slavery and the discrimination
it spawned a "stain that we have not yet wiped
clean" and said there was much work to do
to improve education for black Americans and
increase the number who own their own homes and
businesses.
NAACP President Bruce Gordon said he thought
Bush gave a "very strong performance," but
actions will speak louder than words.
"
It's one thing to speak it, it's another thing
to do it," Gordon told the American Urban
Radio Network. "So we now need to move from
what's been said, to what gets done."
Three Democratic members of the House
of Representatives said in a joint statement
that many of the
goals Bush outlined are items all Americans
can embrace.
"
Unfortunately, over the last 5-1/2 years the
president has compiled a consistent record of
saying one thing and doing another in pursuit
of those goals, thereby undermining our nation's
ability to truly reach them," said Reps.
George Miller of California, Major Owens of New
York and Danny Davis of Illinois.
Bush had resisted invitations to address
the National Association for the Advancement
of
Colored People because of constant
criticism from its
previous president, Kweisi Mfume, but
with a new president he decided it
was time.
When Gordon gave Bush a polite introduction,
Bush said to laughter in the crowd: "Bruce
is a polite guy. I thought what he was going
to say, 'It's about time you showed up.'"
The crowd of hundreds was largely respectful,
giving Bush a standing ovation when
he appeared on stage.
Two men, however, tried to interrupt
the speech before they were escorted
out. One
of them
shouted about Vice President Dick
Cheney and the Middle
East. They were believed supporters
of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.
Bush's appearance coincided with
a debate in the Senate over renewing
key portions
of the
1965 Voting Rights Act, which
is credited
with ending discrimination of
black voters through
barriers like poll taxes and
literacy tests.
He threw his support behind renewing
the Voting Rights Act, which
the Senate later
approved
98-0, saying he looked forward
to signing it into law.
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| Institute
of Medicine report |
| Drug mistakes
injure 1.5 million every year |
agencies
Medication
errors hurt 1.5 million people every year in
the United States and cost at least $3.5 billion,
according to a report issued on Thursday.
If hospitals, clinics and other providers owned
up to each and every mistake, it would help to
keep track of and eventually reduce them, and
systems such as electronic prescribing would
also help, the Institute of Medicine report said.
"
Medication errors are among the most common medical
errors, harming at least 1.5 million people every
year," the Institute said in a statement.
Such mistakes kill at least 7,000 people a
year, according to the institute, an independent,
non-profit
organization that advises the federal government
on health issues.
"
The extra medical costs of treating drug-related
injuries occurring in hospitals alone conservatively
amount to $3.5 billion a year, and this estimate
does not take into account lost wages and productivity
or additional health care costs," the institute
added.
One example -- a Denver hospital gave a newborn
infant a tenfold overdose of penicillin in
case it had been infected with syphilis from
its mother
in 1996.
Nurses balked at giving the baby five injections
so administered the medicine in what turned
out to be an unusual and improper way --
intravenously. The baby died, and the autopsy
showed it did
not have syphilis and never needed the treatment
in the first place.
"
This case illustrates that medication errors
are almost never the fault of a single practitioner
or caused by the failure of a single element," the
report read.
"
According to one estimate, in any given week,
four out of every five U.S. adults will use prescription
medicines, over-the-counter drugs, or dietary
supplements of some sort, and nearly one-third
of adults will take five or more different medications," the
report said.
ONE-A-DAY
"
The committee estimates that on average a hospital
patient is subject to at least one medication
error per day."
Errors occur when prescriptions are written,
filled, administered, when patients are
monitored and when drugs interact with
one another,
according to the committee of experts
who wrote the report.
"
Our recommendations boil down to ensuring that
consumers are fully informed about how to take
medications safely and achieve the desired results,
and that health care providers have the tools
and data necessary to prescribe, dispense, and
administer drugs as safely as possible and to
monitor for problems," said J. Lyle Bootman,
dean of the University of Arizona's College of
Pharmacy and a committee chairman.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
said it was already working on some
of the recommendations,
including better patient education
and labeling.
Health care providers typically do
not inform the patient or the patient's
guardians
about
errors unless injury or death results,
the report said. But if they did, it
would help
make everyone
involved more aware of the errors and
would encourage them to take more care,
the report
said.
"
Electronic prescribing is safer because it eliminates
problems with handwriting legibility and, when
combined with decision-support tools, automatically
alerts prescribers to possible interactions,
allergies, and other potential problems," the
institute added.
It said that by 2010 all providers
should be using e-prescribing systems
and all
pharmacies should be able to receive
prescriptions electronically.
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