HealthCare PSI Blog

The Sharp End Rocks

Thought I'd take a welcome break from pointing out all that is wrong with healthcare's Blunt End today, and focus on some of the people who have chosen patient care as a profession - and are happy with that decision! That's right, I'm talkin' about the Sharp End, those mostly unsung heroes who are responsible for every facet of hospital care, from mopping the floors to performing surgery.

I found this video on the LA Times Health page this morning. Made me smile, so I had to share it. Pink Glove Dance has already had more than 2 million views on YouTube. It was made by the employees and staff of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon and was intended to promote breast cancer awareness. However, there's a message here beyond that. These people are having fun. They love what they do, that's obvious. Cranky, burned-out, uncommitted healthcare workers do not work together, let alone choreograph a video and show off their moves on YouTube for all the world to see.

As for healthcare videos featuring the Blunt End... don't hold your breath. Blunt End players are generally shadow dwellers; they avoid the public eye. But if you do find one, send it to me!

Moo

In the past couple of weeks we've seen lots of healthcare headlines, none of which bode well for patients. These include new recommendations for women that include, Hey, you know what? You don't need that annual mammogram after all! And while you're at it you can skip that yearly Pap test, too!

These "expert" recommendations were soundly rejected by most medical professionals.  I must admit that the healthcare industry cynic in me thinks there's a tiny grain of truth in the suggestion for less screening. We're one month out from the annual Pink Ribbon campaign to fight breast cancer; anyone want to tell me there wasn't a boat load of money made on screening and selling pink merchandise? Scare tactics = profit. But I digress...

This week that collection of mostly vintage, well-compensated and out-of-touch humans who are supposed to represent us, the people who put them there, will begin debate on healthcare reform. Seems a good time to remind you of our place in all this chatter... When I say our place, I mean us. The Patients. Healthcare Consumers. The Paying Customers.

We Are Cattle.

Illinois: Another State in the Dark

Late last week the state of Illinois proudly unveiled its new Illinois Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care. This project languished for a full five years through budget shortfalls, legal challenges, and all the usual BS you expect with a government project. But launch it they did last Thurday night at 9 pm. Don't ask my why the weird hour.

The PR campaign accompanying this launch was promising, so I clicked on over to check it out. Sadly, I did not find the site "as-advertised." In fact, there is nothing new here at all. This is little more than a glorified PR piece for the state's hospitals. Illinois seems to have bowed to the healthcare industry in the same way Connecticut did, leaving its residents completely in the dark.

Data contained here is most often provided by the hospitals  themselves and consists mostly of the same information you'll find listed in the shiny brochure patients get when admitted to a hospital for treatment.

The catagory "Patient Satisfaction" is also as watered down as you can possibly get. Info for this section is gathered by a professional survey company; if you've ever been a patient you probably received one of those little postage-paid cards from Ganey or someone similar. Random samples of those surveys are provided on this new website. This is hardly a best effort when it comes to reporting patient safety and satisfaction.

My advice: skip the shiny new website. Instead check out HealthGrades and USAToday's stats. Far more useful.

Guest Post by Jennifer Johnson

Note: I am frequently asked if I accept guest posts for HealthCare PSI Blog. I do! Today's post was written by Jennifer Johnson, with Nurse Practitioner School. Thanks, Jennifer, for your perspective. - DK

Why Preventable Medical Errors Occur

It’s a statistic that will leave you flabbergasted, because you begin to realize that the very profession that is responsible for saving lives is also contributing to taking or ruining it. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, as many as 32,500 deaths are caused in hospitals due to medical errors that are preventable. The cost to the healthcare industry because of this negligence is a whopping $9.3 billion. From objects being left inside patients to postoperative and hospital acquired infections, many people are affected adversely by medical errors which happen mostly because of:

·     Carelessness: When doctors and other healthcare professionals get careless, they misdiagnose an illness or administer the wrong medication to patients. Nurses have been guilty of not reading patient charts carefully before giving them their medication while doctors have been known to provide wrong diagnoses because they do not take the time to examine patients thoroughly and carefully.

·     Exhaustion: Most doctors and healthcare providers are overworked and often on their feet for hours together without sleep or proper nourishment. This leads to carelessness on their part because tiredness and exhaustion set in and affect their ability to think clearly, make the right decisions and do tasks the right way. Errors that are otherwise preventable thus tend to happen more often than they should. 

·     Overconfidence: Some healthcare professionals are just too cocky for their own good. They think that they know it all and that their diagnosis is the right one. They are too proud to consult their fellow physicians to get a second opinion because they do not want to be contradicted. This overconfidence ends up costing patients more time in the hospital, more disruption in their lives, and in some cases, even their lives itself.

·     Lack of information: When patients fail to tell doctors and nurses about their medical history, the medicines they are allergic to and the medication that they are on at the time of treatment, they are putting themselves at risk. When your doctor is ill-informed, there is a high probability that errors will happen.

·     Negligence: When doctors and other healthcare providers neglect to tell patients all that they need to know about their condition and their illness, errors begin to creep into the treatment being provided. Some nursing homes neglect their patients’ needs and this complicates matters even further.

Preventable medical errors eat up a large chunk of the healthcare budget and raise premiums for every citizen of this country. They also reduce productivity by increasing the number of days spent in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Unless steps are taken to bring down their number, the millions that are being spent on healthcare may just as well be money down the drain.

By-line: This guest article was written by Jennifer Johnson, who regularly writes on the topic of nurse practitioner school . Jennifer welcomes your comments and questions at her email address:  jennifer.johnson1@rediffmail.com

 

Lost Credibility

Seth Godin wrote this very good post today. In it, he contends that we are all amateur scientists making decisions based on little more than feelings, urban legends and gut instinct. He says that, for whatever reason, we ignore recommendations and guidelines put forth by experts. Several of the examples he sites cover healthcare, so I'd like to respond.

Now, I love Seth Godin. Absolutely love him. Think he's brilliant in fact. But there's a hole in his post big enough to drive a truck through. In a perfect world, his assessment of the amateur scientist public would be accurate. Trouble is, our "experts" have been shown to be flawed, asleep at the wheel, or in bed with the very industry they're supposed to be policing. Turns out the FDA has approved a number of drugs that are not safe; they're so not-safe they kill people. How many drug recalls have been issued in the last five years? How many hefty fines have been imposed? And do you remember the congressional hearings?

While we're on the subject of recalls, let's not forget that the FDA is the same agency responsible for ensuring safety in the US food supply. How many people have been sickened or died this year alone from tainted ground beef, green onions, lettuce and peanut butter? The FDA's response is that they just don't have enough inspectors to do the job. Result - the FDA is discredited and everything they say is suspect.

Then there's the Swine Flu vaccine. Yeah, I'm calling it Swine Flu; it's just easier. The government has assured the public that the vaccine is absolutely safe. Problem: the most vocal opponents to this vaccine are health care workers. Hospital employees, doctors and nurses are refusing to get this shot in massive numbers. Some have quit their jobs. If the pushback were from, say, auto mechanics it wouldn't carry much weight with the general public. But when healthcare workers go directly against a government recommendation, it gives people pause. What do they know that we don't?

Trouble is, the public has learned that expert opinions are a dime a dozen. Too many of our experts are working for corporations and hawking their goods. Data is falsified. Lies are put forth as truth. Our tried and true experts have lost credibility and the "amateur scientist" public is now scouring the web looking for roadsigns to the truth. It is a dark, twisted and confusing path filled with detours, switchbacks and snake oil salesmen... but they're out there looking anyway because they don't trust the experts.

This week, Connecticut has been in the news for keeping its residents in the dark about the quality of care in its hospitals. Who's behind this? The healthcare industry and state goverment. Connecticut's hospitals did not want their safety records and patient outcomes revealed to the public, so they sidled up to the state health department and a few politicians and quietly got the law changed. No one was the wiser until the Hartford Courant wrote an expose this week. Now there's a battle raging over just how much truth to release.

The public would love to trust experts. They're tired of lies and spin.