Moderated by Charles Ornstein, Los Angeles Times Health Investigative Reporter

Consider the errors reported in recent months at Los Angeles area hospitals: The newborn twins of an A-list actor received an overdose of heparin that could have caused serious damage or death. Three patients at one large medical center had surgery on the wrong body part in a 14-month span. And an emergency room patient at a public hospital left before his treatment was finished and was found dead in a parking lot across the street. All of these cases raise questions about the quality of Los Angeles-area hospitals. While most patients are pleased with their care, some wish they could have chosen a different hospital. The good news is that consumers have never before had access to so much information to help them choose which hospital is right for them. Patients can find data on hospitals’ survival rates, patient satisfaction and how well they follow standard medical guidelines for the treatment of common ailments. Charles Ornstein, a health investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times, visits Zócalo to lead a panel that will include, among others, Dr. David Feinberg, chief executive of the UCLA Hospital System and Carole Moss, a proponent of public reporting of hospital infection rates whose 15-year-old son Nile died of a drug-resistant staph infection in 2006, and Patti Harvey, vice president of quality and risk management for Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California region. They’ll talk about how to measure the quality of medical care delivered at local hospitals and the types of questions consumers should ask before they enter one.