Wednesday, July 23, 2014

HOSPITALS GET STAY-OUT-OF-JAIL PASS? WHY?

Rosemary Gibson on HuffPost Politics  July 23 re the Senate hearings on hospital fatal accidents: 
 "No hospital CEOs testified at the hearing. Were any called to appear before the committee? If not, why not?
One would be hard-pressed to find any hospital CEO who has ever been summoned to testify before Congress to be held accountable for preventable patient harm.  General Motors CEO Mary Barra has been hauled before Congress to account for at least 13 deaths. . ."
Elsewhere in the post, she asks why Non-Va hospitals are not being punished. 
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 And I ask, if not the Senate, then who's in charge?
What happened to the vow from the Dennis Quaid followers that the hospital Board is responsible for all that happens?  And I answer:  The board doesn't have to answer to anyone!  
But at least the CEO might.  Yet penalties and fines by government agencies have not made a dent.  In a hospital where I've been a patient, the head man during the flesh-eating bacteria crisis moved on to another hospital after some very lame remarks.
In Texas, I'm told there is no way to punish dangerously bad doctors.  What's the situation in your state?  And have hospital CEOs even tried?  Have their salaries ever been cut?
Why don't we demand that the media ask hard questions?  
And how can doctors ask hard questions when they have agreed to be employed by the hospital?!

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