Sen. Duane. What Took You So Long?

Interesting, isn't it, that two days after The New York Daily News published a story about hospital cover-ups, that Sen. Tom Duane (D-Manhattan), chairman of the state Senate Health Committee, decides to hold hearings on the matter.   It took a newspaper story to get the Senate Committee off their collective butts?  A newspaper story.   I'm sure millions of tax dollars are spent each year on government agencies and regulatory bodies that are supposed to monitor these kinds of breakdowns in the mandatory reporting system.  Where have they been?  What are they doing?  Should they not be held accountable for their lack of oversight? 

Even the city Controller's office in March reported city hospitals underreporting incidents and covering up dozens of medical incidents, including fatal errors.  Did the Controller's office tell anybody when they discovered this problem?  Did they tell Senator Duane?  If not, why not?

I mean, people are dying needlessly while supposedly in the care of city hospitals and it takes a newspaper story to force the hand of Sen. Duane and other people responsible for the oversight of the very institutions that are killing them. 

I never again want to hear a politician argue in favor of tort reform.  If government agencies, and the city services  regulate, would only do their jobs, maybe there wouldn't be so many negligence lawsuits.

 

Shut This Place Down!

I don't understand why the city just doesn't shut this place down!  Kings County Hospital, hospital in name only, is at it again.

This time, a mentally retarded and autistic 18-year-old actually lived inside the waiting room of the hospitals' emergency room and then disappeared for six days.  Although he was not officially registered as a patient, staff members repeatedly claim to have written inrecords that he was okay.

He went missing on a frigid Saturday night before Thanksgiving in 2008.

According to a report in The New York Daily News today, "One of those reassuring notations was entered into the records at the same time the teen was found in a bathroom, forced to perform oral sex on another patient.  The reassuring record was a lie."

According to the story, "When investigators checked what records existed for the patient, they discovered hospital employees had made numerous entries in logbooks that were contradicted by videos of the waiting room showing the teenager wasn't where they had claimed he was and nobody was checking on him."

This isn't the first time a lie was exposed by video at Kings' County psych ward. A year ago this month, shocking TV images surfaced unmasking a coverup in the death of patient Esmin Green.

In Green's case, hospital employees wrote in records that she was "awake, up and about, went to bathroom." Security video showed her on the floor of the waiting room, thrashing her legs. Minutes later, she was dead.

There was public outcry, the mayor expressed outrage and then just months later this story surfaces about a mentally ill teen.  It's obvious nothing has changed.  

I suppose, once again, the only real advocates for civil justice are the New York personal injury lawyers whose cases against this very sick institution might be the only thing that will get the city's attention. 

Question for NY Times Editors About 100 Best Hospitals List

The New York Times published a list today of the top 100 hospitals in the USA.  I suppose these are all good hospitals.  But the 100 best?  In the eyes of the beholder I guess.  Then,  I read the criterion for selection.  Good stuff as far as I could tell.  But, there was one glaring omission, at least on any score card I would keep, that made me wonder who was doing the scoring.  If somebody asked me (they didn't) to pick my biggest concerns when it comes to picking a hospital, I would want to know which ones had the fewest incidences of medical errors and malpractice lawsuits.  

According to one doctor who was quoted in an accompanying article, the greatest common risk to patients is the understaffing of nurses.   He said a nurse may make a critical mistake, and a patient might die. She has to live with the error.   But the real culprit, the root cause often is that she or he was understaffed and overworked and a mistake was made. 

Any nurse can make mistakes when things get overwhelming.  But I think we’re at a critical point right now where health plans, insurance companies and hospitals are trying to trim costs and are cutting back on trained nursing staff.  This can only lead to trouble for patients.  So next year, I vote for a new selection criteria for this 100 best list: Hospitals with the highest nurse to patient ratios.