“The proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, open for public comment through June 17, would suppress reporting next year for 10 types of medical harm at hospitals that are often preventable.”
“Medicare said changes are necessary because the agency believes hospitals' safety measures during the COVID-19 public health emergency are not comparable with previous years and could distort results, especially against facilities hard hit by the coronavirus. Watchdog groups criticized the proposal, saying public reporting of medical harm is important to inform consumers and shine a light on hospitals with a poor track record of preventing potentially deadly complications.”
Industry tries to convince us that SARSCOV2 is no big deal, to use that as a reason they don’t need mitigation regulations and standards. And at the same time industry wants you to use the crisis of the pandemic — the “public health emergency” as an excuse to loosen safety reporting?
You can’t have it both ways, and this is totally backwards reasoning & illogical.
The pandemic indeed has been causing a crisis in health safety in multiple ways and so we need both a better pandemic response AND EVEN BETTER healthcare safety measures!
CMS is looking at the neighborhood burning down and saying this is the time to pour some gasoline on the hospital & play with matches.
NO. Preventable medical harm should NOT be suppressed, it should be reported and examined more closely in order to better prevent it — now more than ever before, when so many are needing healthcare. The American people and all patients deserve to be aware of and protected from preventable medical harms.
And yes, I have included this version of a Disaster Child Meme we created as an attachment. I feel like somebody needs to make sure the absurdity of the reckless atrocities in this moment are at least in the historic record.
