Comments on:

By: Adam Haskins

Adam Haskins — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:32:04 +0000

I’m with Duckie, Kara has a point and Lisa needs to stop being so offensive. The insurance companies are the only ones to really benefit from this, but the patients may see a drop in payments for insurance.

By: Duckie

Duckie — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:04:47 +0000

I’m not sure how my insurer refusing to pay for never events helps me. My local hospital will have my house if they don’t get paid. Or I can hire an attorney and go through the stress of a lawsuit to get the billing department off my back. I would like to know if there’s a provision in this policy for not allowing the health care vendor denied insurance payment to bill the patient.

By: Lisa Lindell

Lisa Lindell — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:10:12 +0000

Kara,
You’re blissfully ignorant regarding the dangers in hospitals. “Never Events” are a social attempt to highlight some of the many failures in our healthcare system that are harming or killing our fellow countrymen. “Never Events” may not be the end-all solution but it’s definately a step in the right direction, for so many reasons.
If you are really a healthcare professional with 27 years’ experience, then you KNOW how dangerous our healthcare system is, either that or you haven’t been paying a lick of attention to your patients in all these years. In the examples you cite re: falls, burns, you’re blaming the pt and/or their family when in realty adequate safety/staffing/supervision/pt education can and will prevent these outcomes.

By: Kara Clapp

Kara Clapp — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:49:10 +0000

As a health care professional for the last 27 years across a variety of health care settings, I find some of your “never shoulds” misleading. I have had patients contribute to their own falls after surgery when they get out of bed without assistance or fail to wear non-skid footware despite my stern warnings and frequent instruction. Back in the day when patients could smoke in a health care facility, I witnessed a burn and accidental death after a patient’s family member failed to return a suicidal patient’s cigarettes to the nursing unit as policy required. This patient went on to set herself on fire and died later in the ICU despite being on suicide precautions that included irregular-interval checks by staff. And I won’t even describe the stupidity of patients who falsify their medical histories by failing to disclose illnesses even when specifically asked about them. My office intake forms now include a statement that the patient verifies the health information is correct to the best of their knowledge and that I am blameless if injury or disability results from their omission or presentation of misleading information that would lead me to create a treatment plan that is not valid (based upon the false information)–which they put their signature to. I think to make a list of “never shoulds” fosters unrealistic expectations about contributory negligence and unnatural responsiblities on providers in an already litigiously preoccupied culture. It also ignores the basic principles of tort and liability law. Health care is already difficult enough without adding fire to the fuel with articles like this.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:57:13 +0000

Being Burned by any source while at a hospital is considered a “Never Event”. My mother was set on fire during surgery. I NEVER thought this could happen at a hospital. I founded SurgicalFire.Org to help educate the public and consumers on the dangers of Operating Room fires Surgical Fires are 100% preventable through education of all staff members of each hospitalm, surgical center, and any other place that uses laser, cautery, or any electric source.

Please visit http://www.SurgicalFire.Org and help spread the word.