Medical mistake numbers alarm experts

One of four Bay Staters say they or their loved ones have fallen victim to alarming medical mistakes like misdiagnoses and faulty treatments, according to a bombshell report that has local experts calling for more action to prevent such errors among state hospitals and agencies.

"This is a problem of just incredible magnitude," said Barbara Fain, director of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error, which funded the survey. "From our perspective there needs to be a greater urgency around making greater progress."

Misdiagnoses were the largest problem among those surveyed, comprising 51 percent of people who had encountered errors. Thirty-eight percent say they were given the wrong surgery or test, and 34 percent say they were given bad instructions.

The survey, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, asked 1,224 Massachusetts residents if they or someone close to them had experienced a medical misstep within the last five years.

The survey is one of several new reports funded by the Lehman Center, named after a Boston Globe health reporter who died in 1994 after an overdose of chemotherapy treatments.

Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor of health policy and political analysis who led the survey, said the results speak volumes about how little progress has been made since Lehman's death.

"Twenty years ago there was an event that spurred national and statewide movement with an awful death of a reporter," Blendon said. "What do you have 20 years later? You have an issue that's still a problem in people's lives. This is not a problem that went away decades later."

Patricia Folcarelli, senior director of patient safety for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said better systems need to be put into place to prevent human error. "The major take-away is that we still have a lot of work to do," said Folcarelli.

She said the sheer number of health care workers involved in the treatment of each patient — and breakdowns in communication among them — is the major problem behind these errors. "There's multiple people delivering care, and there are a lot of opportunities for information to get lost in the hand-off," she said. "The devil happens in the transitions."

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Honda to expand air bag recall nationwide

WASHINGTON — Under pressure from federal regulators, Honda is expanding a recall of driver's side air bags to all 50 states.

The air bags, made by Japanese supplier Takata Corp., can explode with too much force, sending metal shrapnel into the passenger compartment.

Takata insists that current recalls covering 8 million U.S. cars in high-humidity areas are sufficient. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants the recalls expanded nationwide after some incidents outside the high-humidity zones.

Rick Schosteck, Honda's executive vice president for North America, told House lawmakers Wednesday that Honda will expand the regional recall it began in June, but will continue to prioritize high-humidity areas.

He also said Honda is working with other air bag manufacturers to make sure it has enough parts.

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Takata: Evidence doesn't support national recall

WASHINGTON — Takata Corp. defied a U.S. safety agency's demand for a nationwide recall of driver's side air bags, setting the stage for possible legal action by the government and leaving some drivers to wonder about the safety of their cars.

In a Tuesday letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration obtained by The Associated Press, Takata said its own data and testing support limiting the recall to high-humidity areas, such as along the Gulf Coast. A Takata official repeated those claims Wednesday morning at a hearing before a House subcommittee.

The air bag's inflators can explode with too much force, spewing shrapnel into the passenger compartment. At least five deaths and dozens of injuries have been linked to the problem worldwide.

Under pressure from lawmakers, the U.S. safety agency on Nov. 26 demanded that Takata and a number of automakers broaden a recall of driver's side air bags to all 50 states. At Wednesday's hearing before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, an executive from Honda said the automaker would expand its recall nationwide. Honda is one of Takata's biggest customers.

So far automakers have recalled about 14 million vehicles worldwide for Takata air bag problems, including 8 million in the U.S. A nationwide recall would add 8 million vehicles to existing recalls, Takata said.

Up until now, cars were only being recalled in high-humidity areas in Florida, Hawaii, along the Gulf Coast and in some U.S. territories. Takata has maintained that prolonged exposure to airborne moisture can cause the inflator propellant to burn faster than designed, causing it to explode with too much force.

A number of committee members expressed concern that the limited nature of the recall was confusing to consumers outside of the current recall zones.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, the panel's senior Democrat, said she's received letters from constituents "who are literally afraid to drive their cars."

But Hiroshi Shimizu, senior vice president of global quality assurance at Takata, maintained the company's defiant stance, telling lawmakers at the hearing that the available data and scientific evidence on the air bags "doesn't support" a nationwide recall.

Takata also contends that NHTSA only has authority to seek recalls from auto manufacturers and makers of replacement parts, not original parts suppliers. NHTSA disagrees.

Late Tuesday, NHTSA called Takata's decision "disappointing" and said it will review the response to determine the agency's next steps. A week ago, the agency threatened civil fines and legal action if Takata didn't declare the driver's air bag inflators defective and agree to the recall. It can impose fines of up to $35 million.

David Friedman, deputy NHTSA administrator, is also scheduled to appear at Wednesday's hearing.

In calling for a national recall, NHTSA pointed to inflator ruptures that injured drivers in California and North Carolina — both outside the recall zones.

Takata said in its letter that it has tested 1,057 driver and passenger inflators taken from locations outside the high-humidity zone, and none of them has ruptured. The company said it will expand production of replacement inflators for the current recalls and will expand the recalls if warranted.

The dispute between the government and Takata left automakers caught in the middle. Besides Honda, NHTSA has told other affected automakers — Ford, Chrysler, Mazda and BMW — that they need to recall the driver's side inflators soon.

BMW has said its recalls are national already, while Ford and Chrysler wouldn't comment.

Wednesday's hearing is the second in Congress regarding the Takata air bag matter. Earlier this year, Congress held a number of highly-publicized hearings into General Motors' handling of a recall of cars with defective ignition switches that are now linked to deaths. Investigations into that issue are ongoing.

"I'm sorry to say that it has been a bad year for auto safety," said Fred Upton, R-Michigan at the opening of the hearing.

____

Krisher reported from Detroit. Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.

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Steve Grossman blasts $65G raise for state pension chief

The salary of the state pension fund's executive director could catapult past $500,000 after its board yesterday gave him a $65,000 raise, prompting a warning from outgoing board chairman Treasurer Steve Grossman about the pay hike's optics amid financial unrest on Beacon Hill.

"We are ultimately spending taxpayer dollars and (it comes) at a time when cuts are taking place and budgetary belt-tightening is going on," said Grossman, who voted against boosting director Michael Trotsky's salary to $360,000, which, when combined with a bonus of up to 40 percent, could send his pay past a half-million dollars.

The state, Grossman noted, is trying to fill a $329 million budget gap, and the treasurer said he wanted to see a phased-in raise for Trotsky, who he still lauded for "outstanding" work.

Trotsky, who also serves as the $60.2 billion fund's chief investment officer, told the board that the fund's balance was up 9.4 percent in the year ending Oct. 31, but also warned of waves of market volatility amid the recent gains.

"We think this signals the late stage of the boom that we've been in for the past five years and we have prepared for," Trotsky said, according to the State House News Service.

A representative of Glen Shor, Gov. Deval Patrick's administration and finance secretary, was the only other board member to vote against Trotsky's raise.

Treasurer-elect Deb Goldberg said in a statement while a "significant raise" is well-deserved, the spike was "uncomfortable and not necessarily appropriate at this time."

Trotsky said in a statement he's "extremely proud" of the gains the fund has made.

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The Ticker

Three cos. buy retail at hotel in Kenmore Sq.

Three real estate investment firms have purchased the 37,000-square-foot retail portion of Hotel Commonwealth in Boston's Kenmore Square in a $38.5 million deal.

Boston's UrbanMeritage and Novaya Real Estate Ventures and Atlanta-based Invesco Real Estate plan to re-tenant and reposition the more than 10,000 square feet of space that's currently vacant at the Shoppes at the Hotel Commonwealth in the next 12 to 18 months.

"The retail space has never been focused on by any of the hotel owner/operators," UrbanMeritage principal Michael Jammen said. "As a specialist in retail and mixed-use properties, we believe we can find the retail users that will work well with the hotel use and continue the revitalization of Kenmore Square and the Fenway area."

Current tenants in the hotel include the Eastern Standard and Island Creek Oyster Bar restaurants, as well as The Hawthorne, Starbucks and Hunt's Photo & Video.

The sellers were Denver-based Sage Hospitality, which purchased the hotel two years ago, and co-owner Fundamental Advisors of New York. The 149-room hotel is undergoing a 134,000-square-foot expansion that will add 96 more rooms, event space and parking.

Jobs emails in Apple iPod trial

The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., led the company to violate antitrust laws by restricting music purchases for iPod users to Apple's iTunes digital store, an attorney for consumers suing Apple said in court.

Opening statements began yesterday in an Oakland, Calif., federal court in the long-running class action, which harks back to Apple's pre-iPhone era. The plaintiffs, a group of individuals and businesses who purchased iPods from 2006 to 2009, are seeking about $350 million in damages from Apple for unfairly blocking competing device makers. That amount would be automatically tripled under antitrust laws.

Today

 Labor Department releases revised third-quarter productivity data.

 Institute for Supply Management releases its service sector index for November.

 Federal Reserve releases Beige Book.

THE SHUFFLE

JLL Construction has hired Cosmas Papanikolaous and Bill Guzowski to join the firm's New England Construction group as an estimating manager and senior construction manager, respectively. Papanikolaous comes to JLL from Bond Brothers. He brings more than 14 years of industry experience having previously worked for Suffolk Construction and Tocci Building Corp. Guzowski joins JLL from AZ Corp. He has more than 21 years of experience in the institutional, life sciences, and health care industries.

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Reebok to outfit all UFC fighters

Reebok is expanding its fitness focus by stepping into the Octagon under a six-year deal as the new exclusive outfitter of the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts organization.

The Canton athletic brand also will be the official clothing provider for fans of the 21-year-old UFC and will develop a new line of training gear for the 35 million people worldwide who use MMA, boxing and kickboxing in their exercise regimes.

"It's a very significant commitment, and we think it will generate significant commercial opportunity," said Reebok president Matt O'Toole, who declined to put a dollar figure on the deal. "It's one of the few sports that's popular in every continent, and its viewership numbers keep climbing — similar to ... the NBA or other sports leagues."

The alliance is the biggest non-broadcast deal signed by the Las Vegas-based UFC and will further professionalize the sport, chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said. "Working with another global brand with such a strong history in training and fitness will deliver long-term value for UFC athletes and their brands by elevating and further professionalizing the events and the sport," he said in a statement.

UFC athletes will be required to wear Reebok gear at all official UFC events starting in July and will no longer be permitted to exhibit other sponsors' logos during them. In turn, the UFC will compensate them based on their rankings during event weigh-ins.

Reebok currently sponsors UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks and lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and expects to add more UFC fighters to its roster.

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Somerville pols laud $1B for Green Line expansion fed

The economic future of Somerville and Medford is on a fast track after the Green Line extension passed one of the last key financing milestones for a plan that calls for adding six stops to the popular MBTA route.

"The economic impact is unlimited for Somerville," said city Mayor Joseph Curtatone.

Curtatone said the extension will be more transformative to the city than even Assembly Square, a project that was made possible by a new Orange Line station.

The project will add six stations in Somerville and Medford, including a new branch to Union Square and a stop at College Avenue in Medford.

In its evaluation of the extension, federal transportation officials said the area's future development is largely dependent on transportation improvements.

"The corridor's capacity to accommodate additional development depends on the improvement in the transportation access that would be provided by the Green Line Extension," the report says.

The project will get nearly $1 billion in federal money, the Federal Transit Administration said in a letter to a U.S. Senate committee.

The rest of the project will be paid for by 
$996 million in state bonds and $305 million in state operating funds.

U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, who represents Somerville and served as mayor of Somerville, said the project will have more than just economic benefits, adding that the line "is really intended — in my mind — to serve people who have been underserved for forever."

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Tinkerbell to shine in Walmart ads for NBC's 'Peter Pan'

Don't be surprised if elements of "Peter Pan" show up in the commercial breaks during NBC's live Thursday telecast of the famous 1904 play.

Walmart, which ran ads during NBC's live broadcast of "The Sound of Music" last year that used songs from the play to make a marketing point, will again serve as lead sponsor of the live event, and will use commercials that echo the action that just took place in the play just before the production cuts to advertising. All five of the spots will also feature Tinkerbell (or, at least, the version of the character being used in the NBC production).

Walmart will have the heaviest presence in what is a sold-out program, said Dan Lovinger, executive vice president of entertainment ad sales at NBCUniversal. "I think that the industry, and certainly America, is really falling in love with concepts like this," he said. "It's a great family event. It gives people the opportunity during the holidays to sit down together to watch a show that everyone can be comfortable with."

Set to air live at 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 4, NBC's "Peter Pan" production shows the network doubling down on a gambit that worked well last year - and is gaining traction across the TV-scape. Just as Discovery Channel's recent broadcasts of daredevil Nik Wallenda walking a tightrope over Chicago and in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon have lured viewers, so too has the prospect of seeing up-and-coming celebrities hold forth in the title role of NBC's theatrical events. Allison Williams will play Peter Pan while Christopher Walken will play Captain Hook.

The network's live broadcast of "The Sound of Music" attracted more than 18 million viewers. NBC has already unveiled plans to mount a live production of "The Music Man" in 2015.

Demand for the show has been high, as more advertisers demonstrate a craving to link to the growing number of live events TV networks are testing to lure bigger crowds. NBC sought more than $350,000 for a 30-second spot in the show, Lovinger said, confirming a previous report in Variety. He declined to name other advertisers in the event, but said the show had support from the restaurant, electronics, movie-studio and wireless categories.

In five Walmart ads slated to run at specific moments during the program, viewers will see actress Melissa Joan Hart and her actual family in scenes that play off "Peter Pan" moments while also showcasing products available at Walmart. Hart is currently involved in Walmart's holiday campaign.

In the first of the spots produced by NBCUniversal, Hart will read a bedtime story to her family as they talk about pajamas (available, as it might happen, for purchase at the large retailer. In a second, the family will play with a Tinkerbell toy and Hart will show her family a "Lost Boys" tree hour lit up in the backyard. In a third, Hart's sons play in the tree house while shouting "Wendy." In a fourth, Hart's family sits around the dinner table preparing to make homemade cookies. In the fifth, and last, Hart reads "Peter Pan" to her kids and talks to them about growing up.

NBC was not able to say whether all the Walmart ads will run immediately after the broadcast cuts to an ad break - where they would have the most relevance - or deeper in the mix of promotions that run in each commercial interruption.

The concept sounds easier to put into practice than the idea Walmart used during its 2013 sponsorship of "The Sound of Music." As part of that effort, NBC produced a series of spots featuring the Brooks family of Gardner, Kansas, which has 12 children. The clan was spotted at various points in the broadcast doing activities to the strains of the popular tunes from the play. Each spot appeared after the song being featured had been sung in the show.

NBCUniversal actually did a four-day talent search for the family that eventually appeared in the ads, which were also produced by the company without the use of an ad agency.

Mediavest, an ad-buying firm that is part of France's Publicis Groupe, helped Walmart negotiate the price and placement of its "Peter Pan" campaign.

Marketers have shown new interest in crafting commercials for very specific occasions, a reflection, perhaps, of a desire to emulate the content that drew viewers in the first place, instead of interrupting the experience. "Clients in general are getting more and more creative and more demanding to create content that's relevant and resonates with not only our viewers but their consumers," said Lovinger.

NBC and Walmart have a history of teaming up for family fare. In 2010, the retailer and Procter & Gamble joined with NBC to create a TV movie, "Secrets of the Mountain," that aimed to offer an alternative to what the advertisers viewed as an increase in risqué fare on the boob tube. After "Mountain" ran in April, a similar effort, "The Jensen Project," aired in July of that year. Broadcasts of the films featured both ads from each company as well as placements of their products and logos in the content itself.

Walmart has been spotted sponsoring other pieces of family fare this week. Last night, the retailer had two different commercials run during ABC's "Toy Story That Time Forgot."

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Americans watch less TV, stream more, report shows

NEW YORK — Americans are turning away from live TV on the tube and tuning in to streaming services, a Nielsen report says.

That's bad news for cable and satellite TV providers. Americans are increasingly watching TV shows and movies on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon streaming and other services. CBS and HBO have announced standalone streaming services as well.

About 45 percent of Americans stream television shows at least once a month, according to research firm eMarketer. That number is expected to increase to 53 percent or 175 million people by 2018, it says.

According to the Nielsen report, which came out Wednesday, the average daily time spent watching live TV fell 12 minutes in the third quarter to four hours and 32 minutes. That means it dropped nearly 4 percent to 141 hours per month.

Meanwhile, time spent watching streaming services jumped 60 percent to nearly 11 hours each month.

That's still a small amount compared with live TV, but it is growing quickly.

"Content is still king, but consumers are shaping their own content-discovery experience, and the evolving media landscape has not lessened consumer demand for quality, professionally produced content," Dounia Turrill, senior vice president of insights at Nielsen, said in a statement. "What has changed is the number and reliability of new media available to viewers." =

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Obama tells CEOs he wants to work on wage growth

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama tells business CEOs that he wants to work with them on some "tricky questions" about how to make wages grow at a time when corporate profits are at 60-year highs.

Obama says he is generally optimistic about the U.S. economy but says he worries the prosperity is not felt by all Americans.

He tells CEOs he will make a push to conclude a trade deal with Europe and break through obstacles in the way of a broad trans-Pacific trade agreement.

His remarks came ahead of his meeting with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the incoming Senate majority leader in the new Congress.

McConnell said Tuesday that trade was among the issues where he and Obama could work, but noted that is an issue more popular with Republicans than Democrats.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

President Barack Obama is meeting with leading CEOs to discuss ways to promote the economy and create jobs during his last two years in office.

Obama on Wednesday will attend the quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs. Obama plans to give a speech and take questions.

The White House says Obama will use the meeting to promote bipartisan opportunities to grow the economy and the middle class, such as tax reform, infrastructure spending and trade agreements.

In the weeks since the midterm elections, Obama has cited those three issues as examples of where Democrats and Republicans might be able to compromise. Heavy Democratic losses in the elections diminished Obama's prospects for passing most of his other legislative priorities before leaving office.

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