Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorneys
When you're a victim of medical malpractice, you and your family can feel absolutely helpless. Mistakes in the medical world are borderline unforgiveable, but they do happen. Sometimes the wrong medication is administered, causing ill effects; and sometimes there are complications during surgeries that physicians deem unpredictable. However, when a surgeon leaves a medical device inside of his or her patient's body, or the wrong blood type is administered, the outcome is often fatal and life-altering at the very least.
CMS stops publishing hospital accident stats
This week, federal officials say that they will go back to releasing information about hospital errors to the public. In August, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stopped reporting hospital mistakes from across the country; this after a 2013 claim promising that they wouldn't.
CMS has bitterly acknowledged its wrong-doing and now says it will report on at least eight different HACs, otherwise known as hospital-acquired conditions." A CMS spokesperson recently said that CMS is working to make its files available to the public, saying that it has "been requested, so we will make it available."
In what seemed like a scheming attempt to save face in the shadows of some of the medical world's gravest mistakes, the online information was removed last summer from the CMS hospital comparison site. A spokesperson from an online forum that publishes hospital safety ratings said that she commends CMS for admitting what they did and that she's glad to be able to incorporate their ratings into her site once again.
CMS reprieves itself, publishing medical malpractice stats again
Experts in the field say that CMS has made the right move, citing the fact that federal regulators are seriously pressuring hospital administrators about their safety ratings and how they price different health services.
Before CMS took the information down from their website, it showed how often and how many HACs were acquired from hospitals throughout the country. Originally, CMS published information about thirteen different HACs, but now, as mentioned, will only be reporting on eight. The CMS CEO says that dropping the old five HACs will make the reports easier to read and will be more relevant for consumers.
One of the HACs that will remain is the amount of surgical devices that are left inside of patients after the surgery is complete. In most of these cases, the device in question is a surgical sponge. Patients who have surgical sponges left inside of them are at an exponentially higher risk for debilitating sicknesses and even death.
Free Consultation – 800.777.4081
If you have any questions about medical malpractice, call Dallas W. Hartman, P.C. at 800-777-4081 today for a free consultation.