Sorrel King
Founder Josie King Foundation
Patient Safety Advocate
Best Selling Author

Sorrel King is the founder of the Josie King Foundation, author, and patient safety advocate. She is receiving the 2018 Pete Conrad Patient Safety Award for her vigilant contributions to healthcare for more than a decade. On February 22, 2001, eighteen-month-old Josie King died from medical errors from care after a faulty water heater led to burns brought her to the hospital. Sorrel King founded the Josie King Foundation whose mission is to prevent patients from dying or being harmed by medical errors. “By uniting healthcare providers and consumers, and funding innovative safety programs, we hope to create a culture of patient safety, together”.  Within forty-eight hours, the King family went from planning a homecoming to planning a funeral.  Sorrel slowly pulled herself and her life back together.  A video of her telling her story to 700 caregivers at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement was used to raise funds for her cause.  A 2010 study of more than 675 hospitals that used the video for training revealed that more than 80% could attribute lives saved from the story.  Now, more than 2,200 hospitals use it to inspire their teams to deliver safer care.  Sorrel and her husband established the Josie King Foundation to implement basic programs in hospitals emphasizing communication between patients, family, and medical staff—practices which can now be found in hospitals around the country.  The account of one woman’s unlikely path from full-time mom to nationally renowned patient advocate, Josie’s Story is the inspirational chronicle of how a mother—and her unforgettable daughter—are transforming the face of American medicine.