A central role and goal of civil lawsuits is to make our society safer. Medical malpractice cases are no different than car crash cases or product liability cases in this regard – by bringing lawsuits and holding accountable those entities who cause harm, the idea is to not only compensate injured people, but also deter similar dangerous behavior in the future. Deterrence means (hopefully) that the same behavior that caused this injury won’t occur again. As we try to improve quality of healthcare across the country, is privatization safest? The answer is not always clear.
Medicine in the United States continues to work towards minimizing preventable injuries, and often that involves not only improving the performance of individual providers, but also improving hospital systems within which those individuals work. Policies and training can standardize procedures, so that the same safe thing is done on each and every patient.
A wrench in this progress is money. No, not the money that insurance companies are compelled to compensate medical malpractice victims with to make up for whatever catastrophic harm has been caused. Money in the form of private equity firms and funds that are continuing to buy up medical practices and hospitals for profit.
A recent study published in JAMA compared the rates of adverse events in hospitals that had been bought by a private equity fund, versus those hospitals that had not. What it found was both sad and unsurprising – when for profit entities come in to run things, patient care and outcomes are worse.
Specifically, the study looked at the rates of complications among Medicare patients. In hospitals run by for profit equity funds, the rates of surgical infections and bed sores was 25% more than in hospitals not run by such funds. The rates of patient falls was 27% more in such for profit run hospitals, and most staggering, the rate of central line infections (a dangerous complication that should not happen) was 38% more.
These complications are preventable, the rates of which have actually been declining in recent years as hospitals have continued to improve best practices for avoiding them.
Why is this happening? The study did not clearly define a link between a specific action or inaction by hospitals run by for profit private equity funds, though a lack of staffing (ostensibly to save money) was suggested.
Although gathering more data may be useful in defining the problem and addressing it, this study appears clear that THE problem is putting the profits of investors over the health and safety of patients.
You can read an article summarizing this study here.
