Consumers Union
From Free net encyclopedia
Consumers Union, publisher of the magazine Consumer Reports, is an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving consumers. Its mission is to test products, inform the public, and protect consumers. Its income is derived from the sale of Consumer Reports and other services, and from noncommercial contributions, grants, and fees.
Integral to its mission, Consumers Union has four advocacy offices that address the crucial task of influencing policy that affects consumers. Its advocates tackle consumer issues that are regional, national, and even international in scope from their offices in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, California; Austin, Texas; and Yonkers, New York. They testify before federal and state legislative and regulatory bodies, petition government agencies, and file lawsuits on behalf of the consumer interest. Consumers Union is known around the halls of the U.S. Congress as willing to work with members of both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Consumers Union's advocacy staff focus on policy issues related to telecommunications, media, auto safety, health care, product safety, financial services, investing, food safety, housing, and energy and utility deregulation.
Consumers Union has thousands of e-advocates who take action and write letters to policymakers about the issues its advocates take on. CU has also launched several new advocacy websites including HearUsNow.org which helps consumers with telecommunications policy matters, StopHospitalInfections.org which has been calling on state legislatures to pass laws requiring hospitals to disclose infection rates and more. In March 2005, CU campaign PrescriptionforChange.org released an animation with a song from the Austin Lounge Lizards that was featured by The New York Times, JibJab, BoingBoing, and hundreds of blogs.
History
Founded in 1936 by Arthur Kallet, Colston Warne, and others who felt that the established Consumers Research organization was not aggressive enough. Kallet, an engineer and director of Consumers Research had a falling out with Frederick Schlink, who busted Consumers Research's union and started his own organization with Amherst College economics professor Colston Warne.
The House Un-American Activities Committee placed Consumers Union on a list of subversive organizations only to remove them in 1954. Consumers Union has also helped start several consumer groups and publications, in 1960 helping create global consumer group Consumers International and in 1974 providing financial assistance to Consumers' Checkbook which is considered akin Consumer Reports for local services in the 7 metropolitan areas they serve.
Campaigns
Since the discovery of antiseptics, we generally assumed that hospitals are clean and safe. People don't expect to get an unrelated infection during a hospital stay, but 1 in 20 patients do.
Consumers Union is working to make hospital-acquired infection rates public. This will give hospitals an incentive to improve quality of care and will help families identify the safest, highest quality hospitals.
Hospital infections can be significantly reduced with simple improvements in hygiene practices-especially hand washing-and more when hospitals commit to well organized infection control programs.
Even so, about 90,000 people die each year from infections they acquired while in the hospital. This leading cause of death costs the U.S. health care system $5 billion annually. Although, hospitals generally track their infection rates, they are not required to release this information to the public.
Hospitals resist the public release of their infection rates, saying infection data cannot be used to compare one hospital to another. But federal agencies like the CDC and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality have developed standard ways to report hospital-acquired infections that every hospital can use.
Hospitals also say that infection rates should be reported only in a secret forum where officials can look at the data but the public cannot. They say this will create a blame-free enviroment to discuss problems and work out solutions. Unfortunately, hospitals have enjoyed such secrecy for many years, and there is little evidence that most hospitals have focused much attention on this issue.
For more information on this campaign, visit StopHospitalInfections.org.