I recently went for a routine mammogram. I should have realized things were going to go badly when I had to check in at a central area rather than the mammogram waiting room. After the initial check-in, I then waited 50 minutes to be called to yet another room where I would receive my wristband ID that was the ticket into the mammogram room.
The clerk asked me for my basic personal information as if I was a new patient, even though I’ve been going to the same facility for more than 15 years. I jokingly said, “Did you lose my information overnight?” She replied, “Well, we just went through a systems upgrade.” I laughed and said, “It doesn’t seem like much of an upgrade if you’ve lost all the information – LOL.” Her response was a stony glare and a big red check on my paperwork. I immediately got that sinking feeling you get when you realize you’ve been flagged for a “special” groping at a TSA checkpoint, and was thankful I wasn’t there for a colonoscopy.
After submitting my driver’s license, insurance card and fingerprints ☹, I was finally instructed to go sit in the mammogram waiting room. The clerk proceeded to ask if I had a doctor’s order. I informed her that they themselves told me I did not need a doctor’s order for this routine mammogram when I went through the preapproval process two months ago. She begrudgingly called my doctor’s office and, 20 minutes later, I was finally taken into the back for my mammogram (which took all of 5 minutes). As with just about every medical procedure, up to and probably including radical brain surgery, the hospital paperwork took much longer than the procedure itself.
While the healthcare system spends billions of dollars and an infinite amount of patient’s time to ensure they get all their ducks in a row to get paid by the insurance companies, 400,000 people die every year from malpractice in hospitals. In 1996 the National Institutes of Medicine revealed that up to 98,000 people die every year from malpractice and I thought that fact was alarming. Is it possible that in 2014 healthcare is getting worse instead of better? How is it that the number of deaths from malpractice is four times larger than it was just 17 years ago?
ALMOST 1,100 PEOPLE WILL DIE TODAY, TOMORROW AND EVERY DAY THEREAFTER due to preventable harm. This is equivalent to five 787 Dreamliners crashing every day. Hospital errors are now the third leading cause of death in the U.S. right behind cancer and heart disease. If that doesn’t make CLNC® consultants, hospital RNs and MDs sit up straight and take notice I don’t know what will.
It’s time for the healthcare system to put as much effort (and more working RNs) into the actual delivery of healthcare as they do into verifying insurance, repeatedly collecting personal information and getting ready for the next Joint Commission audit. This needs to happen quickly as the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as “ObamaCare”) will only be injecting more potential victims (with already bad prognoses) into an already faulty healthcare system.
400,000 patients are dying in hospitals from malpractice every year while administrative paperwork takes (and lives) forever. If five Dreamliners crashed every day the media would be up in arms. Instead, this silent epidemic goes unnoticed and uncommented upon. I say instead of debating the current laws we should instead focus on fixing the killing machine known as the U.S. healthcare system. While RN jobs are at huge risk for liability, Certified Legal Nurse Consultants at least have their jobs and futures guaranteed. Is this a great country for CLNC entrepreneurs or what?
I’m Just Sayin’
P.S. Comment and tell me whether you agree or disagree that there’s too much emphasis on paperwork and too little emphasis on patient care.