Martin J. Hatlie, JD

Marty Hatlie currently is the President of Partnership for Patient Safety® (www.p4ps.org) and a co-founder of Consumers Advancing Patient Safety® (www.patientsafety.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the role of the consumer as partner in pursuing healthcare that is safe, compassionate and just. Drawing on experience as a civil rights attorney, malpractice defense litigator, lobbyist and coalition-builder, Mr. Hatlie is active in both public and organizational policy development on patient safety, litigation reform and patient safety issues.

Mr. Hatlie works extensively with consumers and organizations to foster the cultural paradigm shift necessary to support a patient-centered, systems-based approach to the delivery of healthcare services. He was a lobbyist for the American Medical Association for many years. In 1996, he was instrumental in developing the first Annenberg Conference on Patient Safety. In 1997, he coordinated the establishment of the National Patient Safety Foundation and served as its founding Executive Director (1997-99). From 2000 through 2002, he served as the National Chair of VHA Inc.’s Accelerated Learning Initiative on Patient Safety, working with VHA member hospitals across the country.

Mr. Hatlie is the co-editor of the Patient Safety Handbook (Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2003), a leading textbook in the field of patient safety. He is on the editorial board of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare and edits a regular column for this journal. He has authored numerous other publications addressing patient safety and medical liability issues. Among other activities, p4ps develops case based training tools exploring systems problems that produce adverse patient events. Its interactive educational programs, the First Do No Harm® video series, developed in partnership with the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions, are used widely throughout the world.

Mr. Hatlie serves on the JCAHO Sentinel Event Advisory Group and the Patients for Patient Safety Steering Committee, an action area of the World Health Organization’s World Alliance on Patient Safety. He also is a member of the Board of Advisors of Parents of Infants and Children with Kernicterus. Previously, he was a member of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Session on Medical Error and served on the boards of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, the Physician Insurers Association of America and the American Tort Reform Association. He was the Founding Chair of both the Health Care Liability Alliance and the National Medical Liability Reform Coalition – both are Washington, DC-based coalitions that advocate civil justice and patient safety reform.

Mr. Hatlie is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and Illinois.

Email: Marty Hatlie