The Role of State Governments in Preventing Medical Errors
- Author Moshe Sharon
- Published August 16, 2010
- Word count 675
On August 7, 2008, the Chicago Tribune posted a blog entitled "Illinois ponders how to treat medical errors" (chicagotribune.com). It was a scathing commentary on the lackluster performance of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services in protecting the state’s residents against medical mistakes, wanton neglect, incompetence, abuse and callous disregard of patients’ safety and well-being that runs rampant in hospitals and nursing homes across the State of Illinois and America. The reporter, Judith Graham quoted the Health Department spokesperson, who said, "We’re still in the very preliminary stages and it’ll probably be a while until we make a decision." This shameful public display of indecisiveness and indifference from the state’s bureaucrats unfortunately reflects the attitude of the leadership in the governor’s mansion toward public safety.
While I applauded Ms. Graham for bringing this travesty to light, I must respectfully admonish her for grossly understating the problem. Since the Federal Government, through the Institute of Medicine (IOM), made public the fact that hospitals were needlessly killing more than 100,000 people per year in 1999, actions taken that proved ineffective were as follows:
1.Hospital executives hired consultants to study the root causes of medical errors and make recommendations for prevention;
2.State legislators passed laws requiring full disclosure of medical errors;
3.State legislators passed laws requiring that health care workers take a one-time 2-hour course in the prevention of medical errors for licensure or registration renewal;
Moreover, to make matters worse, some thirty states, including Florida passed laws creating roadblocks to finding legal representation to prosecute medical malpractice by cutting the contingency fees that lawyers may charge by at least two thirds. These new statutes completely undermined the whole concept of health care provider accountability. Then, of course it was no big surprise to find out that a private organization called Healthgrades, Inc had, in June of 2004, published estimates of more than two hundred thousand unnecessary hospital deaths per year and brought out the fact that hospitals across the board inadvertently kill 1 out of every 500 people admitted. Moreover, these statistics did not count the 192,000 reported annual deaths due to hospital-acquired infections.
Now, we have federal and state governments taking unilateral actions to deny payment for services arising out of "never events", which are acts of gross negligence by omission or commission. While the jury is still out on these new fiscal tightening policies, we have yet to find even one lawmaker who will give a single thought to enforcing health codes, truth in advertising laws, statutory standards of care and fiscal responsibility regulations. Lawmakers and health authorities have yet to realize that in cases of flagrant violation of patient safety standards, they need to put those corporate criminals in jail where they can no longer perpetrate their wanton and callous disregard for human life.
On the other hand, notwithstanding that the great State of Illinois is now just beginning to look at the problem of medical negligence being the fifth leading cause of death in the United States, the rest of the "more aggressive states" are simply denying payment for treatment of untoward complications, without any system for adjudicating accountability. This will cause a serious delay in the payment of hospital bills and further undermined the financial integrity of an entire industry that is already strapped for cash. Hospitals will inevitably challenge most of the payment denials based on claiming that the complication in question was the result of the disease process and not attributable to the ever-expanding list of "never events". This situation will also cause an additional financial burden with attorneys’ fees and the processing of tens of thousands of new denial of claim challenges. For the solution, it all boils down to holding individual members of the institutional controlling bodies accountable for deliberate decisions that place people’s lives in jeopardy, either civilly, criminally or both as the case may be. There also needs to be licensure for key positions in hospital management to ensure that those in charge are sufficiently knowledgeable as to how operate within acceptable standards of care.
Moshe Sharon has been a registered nurse for 31 years with a graduate degree and specialty in public health. He has spent most his career in search of ways to achieve true healing for those who are not yet well. http://legalnurseconsultanttom.com
Article source: https://articlebiz.comRate article
Article comments
There are no posted comments.
Related articles
- Out with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael: 230,000 Irish Children Living in Poverty
- Why Women of Color Need to Support Kamala Harris
- The Dark Reality of Forced Prison Labor: Why I Stand Behind Proposition 6
- Analyzing the Leadership Qualities of Abraham Lincoln during Crisis Situations and Racial Legal Issues: Studies
- Exploring the System of Checks and Balances Among the Three Branches of Government Machinery
- An Analysis of the Political Landscape in Guatemala and Its Impact on Regional Stability
- Gossip! How Caryma Sa'd convinced Jeremy Mackenzie to work for the RCMP
- Analyzing the Cultural and Historical Significance of Mongolia in Relation to Its Socio-Political Context
- Left, Right, and Ridiculous
- The Effect of Brexit on the UK Fishing Tackle Industry
- A Visionary Leader for Somalia's Future: Mohamed Said Deni's Path to the Presidency in 2026
- Potential 2024 Padang Pariaman Regent Candidates Form Three Axes: High Chances of Fierce Competition
- Russia Gate-How It Happened
- How the Manhattan D.A. is changing Politics in America
- How Corruption is Destroying Development in Africa
- What Happens if Houthi vs US Led Operations takes another turn involving Russia and China? Regional wide impact.
- Why America Needs More Moderate Republicans
- From Importer To Exporter: The Shifting Geopolitics Of U.S. Energy Policy
- The Dark Side of Globalization: Inequality, Conflict, and the Struggle for Resources
- Escalation in the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Unpacking the Recent Hamas Attack
- What Frosts My Nuts: The End Time Has Come
- What Frosts My Nuts: Nixon had Big Balls but not P.B.J.
- The 2024 presidential election is already over.
- The Clown King of East Africa
- The Concerning Power Play of New York's Attorney General: A Threat to Its Politician and New Yorkers
- Who has the Right to Control another Adult's Life Without their Consent?
- Can the Charter of Democracy Save Pakistan’s Imperiled Democracy?
- Is Iran in a revolutionary situation?
- Why We Must Be Masters of Our Counter Culture
- It is more Important than Ever that we Guard against Selfish and Criminal Charismatic Leaders.