TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross
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In the airline industry, an unsafe plane gets grounded until the problem is fixed. But in health care, he says, safety is YOUR responsibility! )AP Photo/File)

When hospitals make you sicker

BY Dave Ross  on March 22, 2013 @ 6:21 am (Updated: 7:45 am - 3/22/13 )

Did you see the latest list of the safest hospitals? It was compiled by Consumer Reports and it found that the safest hospital scored only 74 out of 100.

"This remains a huge problem. Hospitals are dangerous places to be."

On CBS This Morning Dr. John Santa, who supervised the survey, said that too often, hospitals will, by mistake, give you a NEW infection on top of whatever it is you already have! The treatment for which they will then BILL YOU FOR:

"I'm sad to say, I think in many hospitals, the number priority is making money."

In the airline industry, an unsafe plane gets grounded until the problem is fixed. But in health care, he says, safety is YOUR responsibility!

"Patients have to be constructively assertive," said Santa. "They need to be asking questions, participating in their care."

How about that. It's your job, as the sick person, to assertive.

Quick tip - speak up before the anesthetic kicks in. Surveys like this assume that we can somehow use this information to be better health care shoppers - the way you shop for a safe car or a healthy breakfast cereal. I guess you're supposed to reach for the April issue Consumer Reports with one hand as you're clutching your chest with the other.

But surveys don't even agree. The highest-score in the Consumer Reports survey went to Bellin Memorial Hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin. But other rating sites like Healthgrades.com and US News - don't even mention it. So before you get sick, you have to pick a survey you believe, then pick a hospital you trust, and then, I suppose, assertively tattoo its name on your chest.

Dave Ross, KIRO Radio Talk Show Host
Dave Ross is co-host of The Ross & Burbank Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 9-Noon) and never too far from the spotlight.
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Comments (6)


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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Of course hospitals are hazardous to your health - it's all the sick people who go there.
    March 22, 2013 6:25 am
    You may joke, Dave, but it IS our job to be assertive and proactive about out own health care. Hospitals are not the country doctor coming to your bedside ar home. Once in recovery, the average daily doctor 'visit' with a hospital patient is less than a minute - and most nurses are over worked.

    I recently spent 5 nights in an area hospital after an operation and found - for example - that if I didn't remind EVERYONE when they came on duty - and often more often - that I did not want nor need opiate pain killers, I came dangerously close to getting some. It's usually hospital policy to reduce pain (or at least reduce you to where you won't be a pain to the nurses).

    But, that's all once you're getting treatment. Hospitals are more for the unexpected and CHOOSING a hospital usually isn't an option any more than getting your choice of rental cars when the family sedan blows an engine while driving thru East Podunk, Tenn. ....................... Of course, if you can plan your heart attack, go ahead and value shop.

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  • Paul Kersey wrote...
    Just wait...it is about to get much worse
    March 22, 2013 7:05 am
    You will look back on this as the good old days.

    Medicaid patients are twice as likely to die in the hospital after surgery as patients with private coverage. Obamacare will cause a 57% increase in Medicaid enrollment as lower earners get dumped from their employer's private insurance. State taxpayers will have little to say about who is eligible for Medicaid. It will be decided from D.C. Those who can afford private insurance will see their premiums skyrocket as providers cost shift to make up for their losses on Medicaid patients. You will not only pay more, but will have to compete with the masses of Medicaid patients for care. If you think hospitals are dangerous now...just wait.

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  • messiah101 wrote...
    Paul K
    March 22, 2013 7:38 am
    So are your saying that those on medicaid should be upgraded to private policys?Or are you saying that if the US and State governments allow more people to get insurance (medicaid) coverage that more people will die because of poor medical care?If what you say is true about people with private insurance paying more in premiums if they want better care then do you feel that its moral to allow people to have no medical coverage in order to prevent higher insurance costs for the more affluent?
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  • mnpat wrote...
    Ya know
    March 22, 2013 8:25 am
    There once was a time when people paid for services rendered, or worked it off. There once was a time when people actually felt shame about not taking care of their responsibilities....can you believe that, actually felt shame....these days many don't and are the first to complain and make demands.....evolution has taken us just so far I guess.
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  • messiah101 wrote...
    mnpat
    March 22, 2013 8:44 am
    Evidently your completely out of touch to the cost of a stay in a hospital.As far as feeling "SHAME" go's it the hospitals that should feel "SHAME" in presenting a person with a $100,000 bill for 8-10 days.Please share with the rest of us how YOU personally would work off that debt?It seems your value system is upside down on this issue
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  • mnpat wrote...
    messiah101
    March 22, 2013 9:06 am
    I would purchase medical insurance in lieu of cool looking rims/HDTV/drugs/liquor/shoes/boots/fashion outfits/reproduce/cars/phones/computers....need I go further
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