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Repeat After Me: I'm Sorry
Tweet Share on Facebook May 11, 2007 Comment"I'm sorry," the doctor said to the patient in the hospital bed. "It's my fault you have to stay another couple of days. I didn't monitor you carefully enough after starting you on that new drug, and you had a severe allergic reaction." A doctor said he was sorry? The patient faints.
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How Patients Rate Doctors
Tweet Share on Facebook May 9, 2007 CommentOver the years, a fair number of consumers who have consulted our annual America's Best Hospitals rankings have gotten in touch with me (I direct the project) to ask why we don't rate doctors, too. If there were a fair and objective way to do that, we would. But public data that might get at the competence of individual physicians doesn't exist. A handful of states, among them New York and Pennsylvania, post statistics on the Web showing how well surgeons in a particular state perform in a limited number of procedures, such as heart bypass surgery. But that is pretty much it. Even in those states, you won't find assessments of primary-care providers and other doctors, because these caregivers don't do procedures that neatly lend themselves to tabulation and analysis.
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Pulling Back the Curtains
Tweet Share on Facebook May 4, 2007 CommentIt was hard to keep from cringing as I leafed through the results of a physician survey centering on quality of care. They were just released by the American College of Physician Executives, whose members consist mostly of doctors with management responsibilities.
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When Is an Error an Error?
Tweet Share on Facebook May 1, 2007 CommentNot so long ago, widely publicized reports put us on notice that when we get medical treatment, chances of a small screw-up–or worse–are far more likely than we would have believed.
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A First: Real Standards for Organ Transplants
Tweet Share on Facebook April 27, 2007 CommentIf the garage that does routine repairs on your car doesn't work on transmissions very often, you'd think twice about going there for a new transmission. How about a hospital that calls itself a transplant center–would you want a new heart or liver or kidney installed in your body at a place that's done the job a handful of times in the past year or two?
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Avoiding Lethal Medication Mishaps
Tweet Share on Facebook April 24, 2007 Comment (3)Would you spend $25 for a little aluminum cylinder that could save your life?
About 7,000 people a year die in hospitals because of medication errors, and the march toward one of these unnecessary tragedies usually begins with a communication gap. When patients are admitted, hospitals frequently have a terrible time finding out the drugs they were taking, because no matter how often we've been told that everybody should carry a list of their medications and dosages, most of us don't. So nurses have to spend hours on the phone with family members, coaxing them to check the medicine cabinet, or call a patient's pharmacy for help. Otherwise the patient might not receive a vital drug, or a deadly drug interaction might occur.
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What Does Quality Mean, Anyway?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 24, 2007 Comment (1)If the quality and safety of your medical care fell short in some way, would you have any idea? Do you know where and when you should be on guard, what hospitals and clinics are doing to treat and protect patients better, and what steps do and don't work? All of that and more will be within the scope of this blog.
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.
