‘This Is Beyond Horrifying’: When Even Low-Risk Children Were Dying After Surgeries, Doctors Couldn’t Keep Quiet Any Longer
The New York Times obtained unfiltered recordings of conversations between doctors at the North Carolina Children's Hospital about concerns that their patients seemed to be faring much more poorly after surgery than they should be. "I ask myself, ‘Would I have my children have surgery here?’" said Dr. Blair Robinson. "In the past, I’d always felt like the answer was ‘yes’ for something simple. ... But now when I look myself in the mirror, and what’s gone on the past month, I can’t say that." The turmoil at UNC underscores concerns about the quality and consistency of care provided by dozens of pediatric heart surgery programs across the country.
The New York Times:
Doctors Were Alarmed: ‘Would I Have My Children Have Surgery Here?’
Tasha and Thomas Jones sat beside their 2-year-old daughter as she lay in intensive care at North Carolina Children’s Hospital. Skylar had just come out of heart surgery and should recover well, her parents were told. But that night, she flatlined. Doctors and nurses swarmed around her, performing chest compressions for nearly an hour before putting the little girl on life support. Five days later, in June 2016, the hospital’s pediatric cardiologists gathered one floor below for what became a wrenching discussion. Patients with complex conditions had been dying at higher-than-expected rates in past years, some of the doctors suspected. Now, even children like Skylar, undergoing less risky surgeries, seemed to fare poorly. (Gabler, 5/30)
The New York Times:
Listen To What Doctors, In A Time Of ‘Crisis,’ Said Behind Closed Doors
Cardiologists at North Carolina Children’s Hospital had worried for several years that children with complex conditions were dying at higher-than-expected rates. By 2016, it seemed that even patients undergoing lower-risk heart surgeries were suffering more complications. In meetings in 2016 and 2017, captured on secret recordings provided to The New York Times, doctors urged their bosses to take action. (Gabler, 5/30)
In other news on hospitals —
Modern Healthcare:
Just 20% Of Hospitals Meet Maternity Care Standards: Leapfrog
Approximately 1 in 5 hospitals fully met national standards for performing lower rates of cesarean sections and other maternal care medical interventions that may unnecessarily increase health risks for mothers and infants, according to a report released Wednesday. The Leapfrog Group surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals and found most providers failed to meet all of the organization's standards for best practices for three maternity care interventions, including C-sections, early elective deliveries and episiotomies. (Johnson, 5/29)
Houston Chronicle:
Houston-Area Hospitals With Worst Safety Grades, According To Study
Houston and its surrounding area is known for some of the best hospitals in the United States. But not all of them share the same stellar reputation. According to the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Guide's Spring 2019 report, eleven Houston-area hospitals received a C grade. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and other supplemental data sources. (Dawson, 5/29)
Modern Healthcare:
Hospital Boards' Lack Of Diversity, Succession Planning Revealed In AHA Survey
Nearly half of hospital boards lack a formal CEO succession plan, according to an American Hospital Association's governance survey, a finding that shocked governance experts. Developing a CEO succession plan is considered a core function of boards. Yet 24% of hospital system boards, 50% of free-standing hospital boards, and 59% of subsidiary boards had no succession plan, according to the comprehensive survey of 1,316 hospital CEOs who responded in the spring of 2018, the AHA's first such survey in five years. (Meyer, 5/29)
Modern Healthcare:
Hospitals Have A Month To Fix Medicare Addresses Or Go Unpaid
Most people don't put much thought into whether to spell out "Street" or use the abbreviated "St." in an address. Come July, though, hospitals that choose the wrong one won't get paid by Medicare, at least temporarily, for certain outpatient services. That's when the CMS will start enforcing its exact match program. It requires that the addresses hospitals use on their claims for services provided at off-campus, outpatient departments exactly match those entered for its Medicare enrollment of those locations. And when CMS says exactly, they mean exactly. In a test run last summer, the agency found a number of discrepancies—mainly minor things like writing out "suite" or "road" versus abbreviating them to "Ste." or "Rd." But even those would be enough to have claims returned. (Bannow, 5/29)
The Advocate:
Promise Hospitals In Baton Rouge Sold To California Company
Southern California health care business KPC Health has acquired Promise Hospital of Baton Rouge, a former subsidiary of Promise Healthcare, a Boca Raton, Florida-based hospital business. Promise Healthcare Group’s hospital network across Louisiana was acquired several months after it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018. The network was split between KPC Health and Lexmark Holdings. (Mosbrucker, 5/29)
Nashville Tennessean:
Rural Tennessee Hospital Is Too Broke To Keep The Lights On, Feds Say
Federal authorities announced Wednesday they are ending Medicare and Medicaid payments to a rural Tennessee hospital that has become so woefully broke that it cannot pay its employees, its vendors or even keep the lights on. Portions of the hospital lost power last month because a $33,000 electricity bill had not been paid. Federal officials also allege the hospital has withheld taxes from employees' paychecks but then kept the money instead of paying it to the government. (Kelman, 5/29)
