The patient was accidentally injected with the wrong medicine. She went into cardiac arrest and barely survived. The hospital admitted its mistake, paid the patients' bills, and changed its protocol on labeling medicine. That's what one hospital did in Chicago - and that's the standard procedure when doctors make mistakes. Should we adopt that program here in Las Vegas? What's keeping us from doing so? And would it lower the over 3600 cases of patient harm reported in Las Vegas hospitals? Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun flew around the country looking at how other hospitals operate. Doctors and hospital administrators tell us what they do in Chicago and Rhode Island - and whether it can work here in Las Vegas.
I came to Las Vegas 6 months ago. In that time, I have had significant contact with the health care industry here. For Las Vegas to be a world class city it MUST address the sorry state of its health care. It is frightening to be sick here. The Chicago model is a first step for Las Vegas to model and implement. If not, Las Vegas will never see the growth it so vitally needs.As boomers retire they will seek communities with solid health care - choosing rigid Chicago before Las Vegas where safety comes first.Rabbi Leonard Zukrow –Jan 4, 2011 09:34:13 AM
