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Hospitals don't want to you to know about their mistakes

Posted on Nov 1st 2007 9:59AM by Rigel Celeste

Filed Under: Diet & Weight Loss

We've all heard horror stories of medical mistakes made in hospitals, things like surgeries on the wrong body part, surgeries on the wrong person, and of course all kinds of fun things left sown inside people after surgery has been completed. Thankfully, hospitals are required to report these things to the government, but what they may not be required to do is share that information with you, the patient.

Some hospitals are fighting making that information public, despite the fact that it's the people's tax money and the people's lives at stake. In Washington, for example, hospitals will no longer be releasing their numbers on adverse events to the public.

That's just plain messed up, seriously.

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1 Comment

Tags: error, errors, hospital, hospitals, malpractice, medical errors, MedicalErrors, mistake, mistakes

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mark Forstneger 11-01-2007 @ 3:54PM

Unless I'm living under a rock, there are NO mandatory federal reporting requirements for medical errors. It is a state-by-state issue, and I think less than half of states have such laws, if that many. Even then, it's still an honors system, when you think about it.

Knowing that Hospital A had seven medical errors last year does NOT mean it is safer than Hospital B, which had zero errors. Those same 7 errors might just as easily happen at Hospital B. Not to mention the fact that there are new drugs, procedures, and treatments introduced into the health care system every day. Each one of them carries the potential to harm patients like you and me.

I'm not defending what the hospitals in Washington want to do. I just wanted to broaden the perspective on this issue.