Holding Physicians (More) Accountable for Preventable Medical Errors
A post by Bruce Bierhans of InjuryBoard.com provides an insightful and objective look at the pivotal area of accountability. His piece strikes a balance between explaining the extraordinary and positive experiences he has had with medical professionals...yet urges how we must press for more accountability when it comes to preventable medical errors. And he's right (one needn't look further than the deplorable statistics and fatalities).
According to Bierhans,"We all have stories or experiences involving marvelous medical professionals that do what they do every day...save lives. However, our judicial system is one based upon the concept of "accountability"; meaning that our system only works when professionals, including physicians and nurses, are held accountable for the preventable damages that they cause."
This harkens back to the interview we held with Dr. Meghan Dierks a few months ago. As Dr. Meghan Dierks found, in sharing weekly compliance data through the use of Hospital Video Auditing (HVA), hand hygiene compliance increased from 38% to 98% in 4 weeks--and stayed there.
Besides the astounding results from HVA's consistent stream of data reporting and benchmarking, what was particularly noteworthy was the area of responsibility that she homes in on. Dierks posits, "I think with further implementations we're going to
realize that no institution can be without this technology. Because it is so
effective, it almost seems irresponsible not to employ these techniques to
solve this persistent safety issue."
Whether it will be insurance companies pressing on medical institutions
by not reimbursing for medical errors, patient advocacy groups leaning
on regulators to provide more transparency, hospital
administrations re-engineering safety practices from the inside out--or
a confluence of support from all sides of the safety spectrum--accountability is the common thread.
As Bierhans writes, "Our challenge in representing our clients is to convince juries that while we all want our doctors to be heroes, they can and do make mistakes; often with horrific consequences. When those mistakes occur, they have to be accountable. Without accountability, in government or the law, we have chaos."
One thing is certain up to 100,000 preventable deaths annually already qualifies as mass chaos within the very hospitals that provide us care.
Bierhans post here. Our interview with Dr. Dierks located here.
