What Doctors Don't Tell YouWe all know that our hospitals are no place to be if you’re sick. Overworked staff who are deprived of sleep are so error-prone that a hospital is one of the most dangerous places to be. And if staff ineptitude doesn’t get you, MRSA might.
But supposing the situation is even worse than we’re told, and that hospital bureaucracies are hiding the true position, possibly because they fear a malpractice suit?
In America health regulators are considering the introduction of mandatory reporting of all errors, a new system that’s been recommended by the Institute of Medicine.
But a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston fears the new policy will only make matters worse. Far from revealing more cases of errors and malpractice, it could mean that more will be ‘swept under the carpet’. In a survey of 320 hospitals, some of which already operate in states where mandatory error reporting is already a requirement, 70 per cent said the new procedure would discourage staff from reporting errors, while 80 per cent said it would encourage more lawsuits.
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
