Personal Injury Law

Nurses Admit that Hospitals Errors Are Frequent

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune recently published an article that discusses a shocking new survey of acute care nurses. The survey was published as part of ?Pulse Report 2010 ? Employee and Nurse Perspective on American Health Care.?

The results of the report reveal that even nurses believe that problems and medical errors are prevalent at the hospitals where they work. An inner turmoil between employees at many hospitals is rampant, say many nurses. This turmoil ultimately affects the care provided to residents.

The large survey involved more than 230,000 hospital employees. The results indicate that virtually half of nurses are unhappy at their jobs, feeling disempowered and disengaged. These feelings affect patient care for the worse. Because of this, many nurses report that they would not recommend their hospital as a care center.

The survey reveals was general hospital reporting does not: big and small errors occur at hospitals every day. The mistakes include medication errors, missed dressing changes, pressure sores, allergic reactions, among many others.

Most hospital administrators are oblivious or ignore the problem.

As the article mentions, too much attention is paid by high level administrators to ?risk management? in an effort to cut financial corners. Instead of doing everything possible to provide the best care possible, hospitals ?maximize profits by calculating the financial risk of allowing "little" things to occur, like an excruciatingly painful stage three pressure ulcer (vs. a reportable stage four). It is a system that operates on the backs of nurses' professional ethics, valuing profit over care, seriously challenging every nurse's core value of caring for patients in a safe environment.?

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti remain committed to protecting the rights of those victimized by medical error. Please contact our offices if you or someone you know suffered at the hands of inadequate medical care.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on August 03, 2010 (boomark / email).