Physicians and other medical personnel often share information about hospital negligence and treatment errors, along with unsafe conditions. This is true for hospitals in Pennsylvania and everywhere else. Some hospitals penalize these professionals for reporting poor treatment quality and patient safety problems.
An October report by the National Association for Healthcare Quality, which represents over 10,000 medical professionals around the world, issued a "call to action." They called upon hospital leaders to encourage, not penalize, physicians, nurses and other professionals responsible for hospital quality measurement and even reporting policies to report every incident involving patient safety.
Hospital management should make it clear that safety reporting systems need to be used fully to identify "near misses," as well as after-the-fact safety and treatment problems. Issues that remain unreported also are not addressed, leading to more potential problems.
Hospital executives must also protect caregivers who report issues from institution or individual retribution and intimidation. This action is critical to creating a better "safety culture" in hospitals. The NAHQ report emphasizes this action plan as vital to improving patient safety.
The report's lead author believes this situation is reaching critical mass, as more health care insurers link reimbursement to the level of quality measures hospitals employ. The "stakes" are becoming "higher," as payments are associated with care quality, integrity of data and complete reporting of all safety issues.
The Department of Health and Human Services issued a January report noting alarming statistics. Their report estimated that almost 90 percent of adverse patient events are not "captured" by hospital incident reporting systems. The report noted that a random sample of 780 Medicare patients' hospitalization generated numerous serious events. The research indicated that of 18 events, involving death or permanent disability, only two were reported.
A February survey by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality showed that many medical professionals were concerned that reporting safety problems would bring retribution. This may be a dangerous precursor to further patient safety problems and hospital negligence.
How do you feel about this situation? Do you agree that doctors and nurses should be encouraged to report all negative events, however minor? Is there a way to ensure hospital event reporting systems improve their effectiveness?
Source: American Medical News, "Hospitals urged to end punitive responses to error reports," Kevin B. O'Reilly, Nov. 5, 2012