Richard Wells letter appears in Modern Healthcare
Embrace the quality challenge
(May 2008) David Burda's lament about "never events" is typical of the healthcare industry ("The perfection injection," April 28, p. 20). For the better part of a century, healthcare has managed to avoid just about any explanation of how it worked, how much it cost or what its outcomes were. Now consumers and payers are demanding better, and Burda suggests that such expectations are somehow unfair.
Really? Is it unfair for a surgical patient to demand that a sponge not be left inside her? Is it unfair for a patient with A-positive blood to demand he not receive B-negative? That these events are accidents is beside the point.
Healthcare is finally undergoing the public scrutiny that most other industries adapted to decades ago. While the list of current never events may be flawed, healthcare should embrace this challenge to become better. While we're at it, we should ask other partners in the industry to step up too. For instance, how about challenging government and private payers to pay more for primary and preventive services, so patients might avoid the hospital altogether?
Published on the "Opinions/Letters" page (p. 25) of the May 5, 2008 edition of Modern Healthcare.