Texas Hospitals Not Doing Enough to Prevent Malpractice

A new report implies that hospital safety indicators (or rather the lack of them) is the main cause of preventable complications which may lead to death for some patients.

The new report, done by The Dallas Morning News looked at a number of safety indicators in order to determine which factors played a role in the promotion or deterioration of safety within a hospital environment. The report also looked at the consequences of privatizing hospitals and its effects on overall patient health.
The Dallas Regional Medical Center at Mesquite Hospital located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area emerged tops when it came to managing and treating preventable conditions within a hospital environment. This hospital was actually ranked 2^nd in the whole state when it came to experiencing the lowest incidences of patient complication. Kudos to them!

Public hospitals are not as safe.

The report also found out that public hospital patients were 370 percent more likely to than those at Dallas Regional to experience complications, putting their lives in danger. This stark difference could be attributed to poor care as well as a laissez-faire attitude toward hospital and patient safety. Some of the preventable pathologies include bedsores, pneumonia and hemorrhages, all of which can be mitigated if proper systems are in place.

Extensive research.

The Dallas Morning News looked at more than 6 million records collected from 320 short-term hospitals in the state. These records are available to any organization on request thanks to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The news corporation used sophisticated software to go over data connected to patient outcomes across a series of complications which are considered to be preventable by medical researchers. It then compared the performance of the top 100 hospitals by the Patient Safety Indicator. The results showed that hospitals such as John Peter Smith had a higher rate of complications despite the health center having improved safety scores over a period of 1 year.
There are certain things which affect patient safety, with one of them being poor staffing. This is especially true of teaching hospitals as well as public ones where there is a lackadaisical air of accountability.  That being said, there are exceptions to the rule, and not every public or teaching hospital will perform poorly, indicating that there might other reasons leading a poor safety record.

Physicians and hospitals need to be accountable.

While it’s not always easy, it’s important to ensure that a hospital or physician remains accountable for their actions. As a patient, you have the right to launch an investigation into your complications to find out what exactly happened and who is to blame. Given the fact that many complications can be avoided, it’s important to understand the facts of your case.

You're going to need help.

Hospitals and medical professionals are not eager to admit their mistakes, and will often flat out deny any wrongdoing even when it’s painfully obvious that they were at fault. Your only real option as a victim of medical malpractice is to contact a medical malpractice attorney and file a claim (or lawsuit) which will allow you to seek compensation for the damages and complications you incurred due to the negligence on a physician’s part.
Read the Dallas Morning News' investigation report here.