Patient Safety App

After a mother died from a preventable medical error, her family took action into their own hands.

After getting knee surgery, Louise Batz was given two narcotics and a sedative; once the combination of medicine was in her system, she stopped breathing and suffered irreversible brain damage. Eleven days later, she was taken off life support and died. Because Batz displayed signs of sleep apnea, she should not have been given that combination of drugs. Her death was completely preventable.

After Batz’s death, her family co-founded the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation so other families wouldn’t have to endure the same traumatic experience of losing a loved one. With the help from a medical advisory board, they created The Batz Guide for Bedside Advocacy.

This guide is now an iPad app that allows patients and their loved ones a way to monitor medical care to improve safety. They can log medications, look up medical terms, track vital signs and more. The app can be downloaded for $2.99. The goal of the app is to facilitate communication by helping patients and families know which questions to ask in order to help prevent errors.

To read more, click here.