Health Care Reform 2009: Patient Safety Awareness Week?

May 24th, 2009 · 3 Comments

These principles are all well and good, but I can’t understand why it took a whole year to paraphrase the standard “patient’s bill of rights” that has been around for the last thirty plus years. Moreover, the above is merely a list of promises not engage in criminal acts of patient abuse, violation of HIPPA laws and violation of civil rights laws. There is nothing in this instrument that actually promises to focus on safety issues other than “We pledge to hold ourselves to the highest quality and safety standards.” This vague reference to quality and safety standards is empty and meaningless because it does not specify what those standards are. How about asking the health care institutional management teams and professional staff to accept responsibility and be accountable for their actions or lack thereof with particulars such as,

“we promise not to let you fall;
we promise that only competent trained and supervised personal will perform invasive procedures on you;
we promise that if a student or intern has to do a procedure for the first time under appropriate supervision we will tell you and ask your permission;
we promise that you won’t develop any bedsores because we will actually turn and reposition you if you need it and we will provide an appropriate pressure relieving mattress;
we promise that your nurse will act as your advocate to insure that you have access to competent medical care at all times;
6. we promise that we will inform you when the staffing level and nurse’s workload becomes unsafe;
we promise that all medical equipment will be in good repair;
we promise that you will always get the right medication at the right time in the right dosage and the right route of administration;
we promise that we will protect you at all costs during surgery and you don’t have to worry about going home with foreign objects inside your body;
we promise that we will properly identify you and the part of your body that requires surgery and that you will never have to undergo someone else’s procedure;
we promise that we will never admit you to our facility unless there is an available bed so you won’t have to stay in the emergency room for several days
we promise that if there are no available beds we will transfer you the nearest appropriate facility for admission;
we promise never to serve scalding hot beverages or food
we promise to monitor your food intake so that you won’t choke to death;
we promise to monitor your unborn child for fetal distress and take appropriate action in a timely manner;
we promise that we will take only that amount of blood for testing that is required so that we never cause you to suffer from blood-loss anemia;
we promise that our nurses will always monitor your clinical condition and report changes immediately to your treating physician;
we promise to carry out doctors’ orders in a timely fashion and refuse to carry orders that are clearly not in your best interest;
we promise to inform you immediately when your nurse has reservations about your treatment and let you know that you have the right to a second opinion before accepting any prescribed regimen;
we promise never to give you any medication or foods that you are allergic to;
we promise, that if we screw up and you get hurt we will immediately provide complete disclosure, accept responsibility, beg for your forgiveness and offer fair compensation for the harm we caused.”

Finally, it seems bizarre we just had a “patient safety awareness week” and our law makers are proposing health care reform legislation with no awareness that patients are unsafe. On the other hand, it is not clear just how NPSF defines “patient safety awareness”. Does it mean raising public consciousness to become aware of the fact that medical and nursing mistakes and negligence is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. so that consumers will realize the danger they’re in when entering a hospital? Or, perhaps it means that health care providers should become aware of what a lousy job they are doing in keeping their patient’s safe. Then again, maybe it means that we should all bombard our congresspersons and senators with email and phone calls telling them to include patient safety requirements in their new law.

Other Internet Media Sources: