Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who are both affiliated with Harvard Medical School; and Boston Medical Center, which is affiliated with Boston University, are all some of the most well known Boston hospitals. Sick and injured people go to these hospitals all the time expecting the best care.
According to data evaluated by the Medicare program, these hospitals were among hospitals all over the country to have a higher number of complications than an average hospital. However some of the leaders of these hospitals question the accuracy and fairness of the data and claim that the data does not take into account how severely ill their patients are.
This data was created as a series of efforts by the government to judge and pay hospitals for the quality of care. The administration thinks that adding financial incentives into Medicare, which is the largest insurer in the nation, will make entice hospital to lower costs and improve care.
Many of the hospitals listed as having the highest complications say that the complications of the hospitals are exaggerated by the number of complicated cases or very sick patients. The data shows the highest rate of complications comes from elderly patients.
Teaching hospitals are listed to be about 10 times more likely than average hospitals to have a large amount of complications. The statistics also show that 3 out of the 10 major teaching hospitals, including some of the biggest institutions in Boston, to have a higher rate of serious complications among elderly.
The numbers were calculated by each hospital's overall rate of complications. Medicare looks at the rates in which patients get punctured lungs, blood clots after surgery, accidental cuts and tears, bedsores, catheter and bloodstream infections and broken hips from falling after surgery.
Of these serious complications, Massachusetts has the 14th best or lowest rate in all of the 50 states for one of the most serious and deadly types of hospital acquired infections. These infections can happen when narrow tubes are inserts in a major vein to inject medicine or fluids or to perform tests. They can add $17,000 in costs to a hospital stay and one fourth of patients who get the infection die from it. Hospitals that have a high rate of preventable hospital acquired infections will soon have to face significant financial penalties.
These penalties connect to the data from Medicare. Beginning in October, hospitals that have poor patient satisfaction ratings and high rates of re-admissions will lose money. Beginning as early as October 2013, Medicare could add the safety measures into its payment formula.
Medicare is publishing the information and some insurers may factor it into decision on how much to pay hospitals. This could be a huge problem for people with private insurance possibly leaving the patient to pay what insurance will not.
Patients are often put at risk due to hospital errors or neglect. If you or someone you know has been victim to hospital errors due to negligence, it is important to seek the help of a qualified medical malpractice attorney to discuss your rights.
