Memo to Hospitals: Bad Care Will Cost You
Reader Comments
Start charging the doctors for manslaughter
This is cold blooded murder. They should be charged, tried, then punished to the full extent of the law.
It is inexcusable, babarous behavoir by people who love MONEY.
My fiance tried to kill herself the other day. She was taken to Regional Medical Center in Anniston, AL.
In three days, she has not seen a psychiatrist. I see them moping around, and promising this and that, and never doing one of them. She went almost three days WITHOUT FOOD.
Think about that. This is what this is coming to.
There is not an single inch of respect left for these money grubbing doctors and insurance crooks. They are complicit in MURDER, nothing less then MURDER itself.
What kind of society allows, and even pays well, MURDERERS?
They also treat her like she is a piece of garbage. Absolutely dehuminizing her. I watched this happen today.
Good for CMS
I am a nurse and was recently forced to quit my job, I chose patient safety over patient privacy, I have no problem with patient privacy but the safety of my patient came first without any consideration. I have seen a lot of unnessessary situations arise in my hospital and have felt on numerous occassions that extra things were being done soley for extra money. I have seen Physicians come to the floor or even call a nurse on the phone but never see a patient and ironically a progress note for a visit show up in the chart the next day. Who pays for that? If the rule states that Medicare will not pay for conditions that arise from neglect and or substandard care than I say KUDOS, Nurses and Doctors will start to have to take more responsibility and do things the right way. We do have to make sure the cost is not handed down to the patient, it has to be something that comes out of the pockets of the money makers.
who will it cost?
If Medicare will no longer pay to rectify errors made by a hospital, who will? Will the financial as well ss the physical burden and suffering be passed on to the patient and his family? Americans are already sorely overburdened. This measure will only add to the misery of the middle class in America. SHAME on you Mr.Comarow!
Treat or Not
So, does that mean if Medicare won't pay, the hospital won't treat properly or agressively, and the patient dies? Just what is the hospital's responsibility in these hospital-aquired conditions? How is this going to make things better for the patient? In my time, I have seen some awful things happen in hospitals.


U.S. News's Avery Comarow has been editor of the America's Best Hospitals annual rankings since they first appeared in 1990. His reporting on clinical medicine, from the latest cholesterol guidelines to robotic surgery, has been driven by the question: What does this mean to patients? And that is the perspective he brings to his observations and commentaries on the increasing number of programs by hospitals and other healthcare providers to improve care and patient safety.


