NYE—GATEWAY TO NEVADA’S RURALS
By Jack Wood
Las Vegas’ Hospitals
Picking up from last week’s column—the vascular surgeon in Las Vegas was finally able to get me scheduled for the angioplasty medical procedure at Spring Valley Hospital in Las Vegas.
There was no consultation of my consent for the hospital designated by the surgeon for the procedure. Just as well, like most, I really didn’t know much about one hospital as compared to another. I had previously been in Summerlin Hospital overnight some months earlier. I had also undergone another medical procedure at a third hospital, the name of which I cannot recall.
Besides, you either trust your doctor’s judgment or you don’t. Besides, once you are in the medical system you are essentially subject to abide by its schedule, not your own.
The article in the Las Vegas Sun, which prompts this column, didn’t come out until my medical procedure was over. I read it with considerable interest. The Sun had undertaken a two-year investigation into the conditions of hospital care in Las Vegas. They obtained and examined 2.9 million hospital patient records.
“Revealed are the dangers patients have unknowingly encountered as they enter delivery rooms, surgical suites and intensive care units, including thousands of cases of injury, death and deadly infection associated with stays in Las Vegas hospitals” the Sun reports. “A recent study found that Nevada hospitals have the worst rate in the nation of readmissions in the nation, meaning discharged patients needed to return within 30 days to hospitals for additional care.”
Further, the Sun reports, “But the public has not known the scope of the problems, even though the state has been gathering patient data since 1986. The data, gathered primarily for cost-control purposes, are based on individual hospital billing records that state law mandates be collected for the purpose of analysis.”
Nevada hospitals have controlled the release of the information to the public, resulting in “hospital patients having no way of knowing how frequently harmful outcomes occur where they receive their most sensitive health care.”
Such transparency is new and novel in Nevada. As Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley posed the issue, “Do you have the right to know about the quality of care you’re receiving? I think you do,” she said. “When you buy a car, you can go to Consumer Reports. Isn’t someone’s life worth more than his car? I would think so.”
Makes sense to me. The Sun’s analysis is contained in a revealing table of “preventable harm to patients that occurred at Las Vegas Hospitals” in 2008 and 2009. They found that 969 preventable cases of harm to patients had occurred.
The hospitals examined include Centennial Hills, Desert Springs, Mountain View, North Vista, Saint Rose-Rose de Lima, Saint Rose – San Martin, Saint Rose – Siena, Southern Hills, Spring Valley, Summerlin, Sunrise, UMC and Valley.
In summary it was found there were 21 instances of a foreign object retained after surgery. Seventy-nine (79) state III and IV pressure ulcers occurred. There were 248 falls and trauma. 13 manifestations of poor glycemic control; 57 catheter associated UTI; 475 vascular catheter-associated infections; 15 surgical site infections; and 61 deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism. In all there were 969 instances of preventable harm to patients over the 2008-2009 time frame.
The hospital locations where each of these events occurred in the Sun’s report are:
Centennial Hills…………. 21
Desert Springs………….. 44
Mountain View…………. 81
North Vista………………. 41
St Rose-Rose de Lima…. 53
St Rose-San Martin……. 64
St Rose-Siena…………… 159
Southern Hills…………… 40
Spring Valley…………….. 49
Summerlin……………….. 51
Sunrise……………………. 185
UMC………………………. 119
Valley…………………….. 62
Total:……………………… 969
So, where do you think you might want to go next time you, a family member or friend have to go to a hospital? Centennial Hills? Sunrise? Good luck with your decision.
You are welcome to read more about this and other matters on the Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals blog at http://nyegateway.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Featheriver.
[Source: Las Vegas Sun]
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