The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) used to allow the public access to data it tracked on the incidence in hospitals of a number of “hospital acquired conditions” (HACs). This data includes things such as the surgical malpractice of foreign bodies left in patients following surgery, the negligent medication administration that results in air embolisms in patients’ venous systems that can kill, and giving patients the wrong blood types.
No more. Recently and quietly, CMS decided it would stop reporting 8 conditions (including the above) that often constitute nursing malpractice, systemic hospital malpractice, or prescription and drug errors, while continuing to allow the public to see its data on 13 other conditions, including infections such as MRSA and sepsis after surgery.
This information is useful to patients and patient advocates who want to compare hospitals before deciding on where they get their care. But the CMS sees it differently: the 8 dropped conditions are so called “never” events that should not happen in hospitals. They say it makes the events harder to track, leading to this change in disclosure. But conversely, isn’t it those sorts of events patients would want to know about in deciding where to get their care?
We live in a society where patients are more and more educated and involved in where they consume their healthcare. Just like buying a car, consumers want to be able to compare their healthcare options on a number of factors, including not only cost but safety as well. The argument from the CMS that this data is so unreliable as to “defeat the purpose” of transparency rings hollow. Why not allow access to the data with caveats for how the data was obtained, while simultaneously working with hospitals to ensure better data in the future?
You can read the USA Today article on this lack of disclosure here:
[Feds stop public disclosure of many serious hospital errors][1]
[1]: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/05/foreign-objects-in-bodies-federal-hospital-reporting-changes/13467829/ “Feds stop public disclosure of many serious hospital errors”
