“First, Do No…thing.”
April 2, 2007
Some Hospitals Call 911 to Save Their Patients
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Brian Harkin for The New York Times
The West Texas Hospital near Abilene. Nurses there called 911 because no doctors were present to treat Steve Spivey when he had breathing problems after spinal surgery.
By REED ABELSON
Should a hospital be able to handle a medical emergency?
The answer may seem self-evident. But patients at some hospitals may find the staff resorting to what someone might do at home in a crisis: call 911 for an ambulance.
That happened recently in Texas, where a 44-year-old man named Steve Spivey developed breathing problems after spine surgery. No physician was working there when the staff first recognized he was in trouble. They phoned 911, and he was taken to a nearby full-service hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The episode occurred at a small hospital that is owned and run by doctors — one of roughly 140 such hospitals around the country, with nearly two dozen more under development, that are set up to specialize in certain types of procedures like heart surgery, back operations and hip replacements.
These hospitals have been assailed for cherry-picking the most profitable procedures from the nation’s 4,500 or so full-service hospitals.
Critics have argued that the doctors have a financial incentive in sending patients to their own facilities, even when those patients might be better off having their surgery in regular hospitals.
Please the entire article at The New York Times.