Medical Errors and Adverse Event Reporting in Healthcare Transparency.
Will healthcare organizations raise the bar on transparency and start reporting adverse events in a public forum as they do costs, and other quality of care indicators?
Transparency, a word with several connotations: free from pretense or deceit, readily understood, characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices. When healthcare organizations discuss the notion of transparency the later two descriptions exemplify the concept. Organizational transparency in healthcare has typically taken the form of selected quality of care indicators.
Media headlines and hospital web sites report statistical information about pressure sore quantities, central line infection rates, and ventilator acquired pneumonia indices. Other organizational entities in healthcare have taken transparency one step further by publicizing their costs for services and procedures via the internet.
The goal of transparency traditionally has been two fold. First, to provide data for healthcare consumers to assist them in making more informed decisions regarding their healthcare choices. Secondly and more widely accepted by healthcare leaders is to provide an impetus for providers to attain higher standards of care.
In the case of adverse events and medical errors do hospitals dare expose themselves for the good of the public? How often do hospitals inform patients about errors and adverse events especially if they are preventable? What are the potentials for litigation if adverse event reporting became part of the transparency concept? Finally, will patients understand and accept the disclosure of medical errors and adverse events if done in good faith and without any gross negligence as they pertain to transparency?
Today hospitals are vying for greater market shares to maintain their financial stability. Great amounts of time and resources are being invested by healthcare organizations to demonstrate superiority of care to healthcare consumers. Despite what organizations may say, these marketing campaigns are clearly more profit and investor interest driven, than they are patient care centered. If hospitals and other healthcare organizations really want to raise the bar and aspire to being the best they can, will they pull the shade up completely and report errors and adverse events?
About the Author
Mike Pringle is the author of Healthcare Today where he offers commentary and insight regarding today’s healthcare issues. Additionally he provides regular commentary for Red Scrubs and editorial content for Future Healthcare. He has over 20 years of nursing experience working both domestically and internationally. Mike has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and a Masters Degree in Public Administration with a Healthcare emphasis. He specializes in both Emergency and Critical Care Nursing. He currently works at Falmouth Hospital as a Shift Manager for the emergency department.
