An All-Out Assault On Hospital Errors

Some people avoid hospitals like the plague. Why?  Well, with 100,000 people dying of medical errors each year, we have a lot to worry about.  Recently, government, managed care organizations and celebrities have taken aim at medical errors. 

First, Medicare announced last summer that it would not pay for “never events,” an industry term for hospital errors.  Unsurprisingly, managed care organizations have begun to follow suit.  For example, recently, WellPoint decided to stop paying for them (registration required to view content). 

Although this has been a major problem for many years, it took a celebrity, in this case Dennis Quaid, to shine a massive public spotlight on the issue.  According to the Health Care Blog:

“While his twins bled profusely, Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, were met by a hospital risk management team, who instead of offering an apology and explanation, provided half-truths and excuses, Quaid told hundreds of journalists Thursday at the annual Association of Healthcare Journalists Conference in Washington D.C.”

Quaid has started The Quaid Foundation, a non-profit designed to reduce hospital errors.  According to The Health Care Blog, he is testifying “about patient safety at Congressional hearings, and he has filed a lawsuit against Baxter International, Inc., which manufactures Heparin, the blood thinning drug that a nurse gave his twins at 1,000 times their prescribed dose.”

However, it is worth noting that hospitals and healthcare providers don’t have a lot of incentive to take the lead on hospital errors.  The threat of massive losses from malpractice suits keeps many from admitting errors and promptly apologizing. 

While we can do more to reduce hospital errors, I’m less hopeful that the culture of silence about this issue will be successfully reduced.