You Have a Right to Know if You’ll Be Harmed or Helped…
Posted by steven_spear | Under health care, process excellence Wednesday Aug 12, 2009When my daughter was hurt, I picked a hospital knowing there was a 24 hour coffee shop opened that night. Am I so reckless? Hardly. The problem is, finding out where the care is great and where it is poor is wickedly hard. Not knowing matters. If you want evidence, check out the great Hearst Newspapers report by Cathleen Crowley and Eric Nadler, “Dead by Mistake.” Patients at ‘name brand’ hospitals, one who drowned in his own blood, another with a feeding tube stuck in his lung, another who got a lethal cocktail of pain killers and sedatives. And this is ten years after the Institute of Medicine’s To Err is Human warned people of the horrific risk to patients.
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The specific recommendations suggested in the report ‘To Err is Human’ have not been widely, or quickly instituted in the medical community. Because the medical community isn’t taking action, Medicare is no longer reimbursing for some medical errors, in hopes that the lack of reimbursement will lead to process improvement.