Surviving your hospital stay

People go to the hospital because they're sick and their objective is to get well, or at least better. Unfortunately, according to the May edition of Consumer Reports magazine, that sometimes doesn't happen. The report, quoting John James, the founder of Patient Safety American, says that medical errors and infections contracted while in the hospital are linked to 440,000 deaths every year. That's over 1200 deaths a day, every day! James started his organization because his 19 year old son died twelve years ago after cardiologists at two Texas hospitals failed to properly diagnose and treat the cause of his son's abnormal heartbeat.

This is what often happens when a family loses a loved one, especially a parent losing a child. They mobilize themselves, do whatever it takes to get answers, and then spend the rest of their lives doing whatever they can do to make sure no one else suffers the loss and the heartache they suffered.

We've been passionate consumers of the medical model for a long time, thinking and believing that medical experts always have the answers and solutions to whatever ails us and, consequently, rarely questioning their medical decisions. But in the end, it's our lives, our health, and our safety they're dealing with and it's crucial that we become partners with them in terms of appropriate diagnoses and treatment rather than blindly turning those crucial things over to them completely.

Consumer Reports has rated 2,591 hospitals across the country with safety scores which could either save your life or kill you, depending on which one you choose. The top-scoring hospital in America, with a safety score of 78, is Miles Memorial Hospital, located in tiny Damariscotta, Maine, population 2,218. The staff at the hospital says that their patients are their friends, relatives and neighbors and that accounts for at least part of the reason for their high safety record. But there are scores of small hospitals like Miles Memorial scattered across the country who serve essentially the same type of population but don't do nearly as well so that can't be the whole answer.

On the other side of the scale, the lowest safety-score rating was given to Bolivar Medical Center in Cleveland, Mississippi with a score of 11. The six lowest scoring hospitals and 8 of the lowest 13 are located in the South.

In Nebraska, the top rated hospital is Saint Elizabeth in Lincoln and Bellevue Medical Center in Bellevue, both with scores of 67 which isn't too far outside the top 15 in the country which range in scores from 78 down to 73. The lowest scoring hospital in Nebraska is Great Plains Medical Center in North Platte with a score of 43.

Many hospitals in Nebraska have not yet been given an overall safety score and Community Hospital in McCook is one of those that hasn't, although it does get a negative rating for readmissions, defined as a patient being readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of initial discharge.

Like any other occupation of profession, few people set out on their mission with the intent of doing poorly. That just evolves over time based on skill level, commitment, staying on task, hiring the right people, and leadership from the top. And hardly any organization starts off as bad; they just get bad over time. Conversely, the individuals who work there usually don't see the overall operation as bad because they only concentrate on their particular job or task.

No one is immune from a bad rating or a good rating; it's up to their performance. Maybe we have to go through two or three plumbers before our sink is fixed, or two or three electricians before all of our electronic equipment runs the way it's supposed to. Those are inconveniences we don't like but ultimately the problem gets solved. Medical care is different because it's our very lives the health professionals are dealing with and one misstep can often spell disaster for us or a loved one.

It's vital that every person becomes an active hands-on participant in their health-care regimen.