Decreasing Quality of Care

Lara Pettiss Harrill

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Les Wiebrod wrote this piece for the Huffington Post earlier this month, and I thought I would pass it along. he talks about two things that came out in the media this month: the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General's report that 94% oof nursing homes around the country have violations; and, the NY Times article about Medicare no longer paying for preventable mistakes that occur in hospitals.

Wiebrod points out that the Inspector General's report indicates that for-profit nursing homes are the worst when it comes to nursing violations - which tells you a little something about which comes first, profits or patients. This little bit of informaiton is made worse by the fact that more and more nursing home admissions contracts are including binding arbitration in order to avoid litigation. As for Medicare's position that it will no longer pay for preventable errors, I think that's a fine position, but the reality is, most likely the errors will continue, and the cost will be passed on to the patients, rather than the hospital or nursing home losing money.

Its an interesting article, very much like my own rants . . . so I'll let it speak for itself.