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May 30, 2002
Bay State Employers Want Hospital Measures
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A coalition of employers that includes Verizon Communications, General Electric, Fidelity Investments, and the state government will mail questionnaires to hospitals this week, according to the Boston Globe.
The companies, disturbed by a rash of medical errors that they say is harming patients and driving up costs, want patients to migrate to hospitals that meet certain quality standards. Posting hospital surveys on the Internet will encourage that, they hope.
The employers have adopted three standards used by a national coalition of companies called the Leapfrog Group. They are:
1. Requiring doctors to order medications in the hospital on a special computer system that checks for dangerous combinations or doses.
2. Placing physicians certified in critical-care medicine, called intensivists, in the intensive care unit during the day to monitor patients.
3. Referring patients to hospitals that perform high numbers of six risky procedures, including coronary artery bypass surgery and esophageal cancer surgery.
The employers are asking hospitals to voluntarily report whether they meet each of these standards.
But according to the Globe, some hospitals already are refusing to participate, highlighting the high stakes for financially beleaguered institutions and the struggle nationally to develop quality measures everyone agrees on.
Executives and physicians at many community hospitals, which don't have the financial resources or high patient volumes of Boston's academic medical centers, say the standards are biased against them, don't predict positive results for patients, and don't take into account the broad array of programs under way to improve care.
"Some of these standards need further study because the cost of implementing them could be enormous," said Dr. Ted Butler, vice president of medical affairs for Hallmark Health Corp., which includes Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford and Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.
Leapfrog Group Executive Director Suzanne Delbanco told the Globe that even though computerized drug-ordering systems are expensive, consumers still have a right to know which hospitals use them.
"The important thing is to help consumers make more informed choices," she said. "Right now those systems are the gold standard for preventing serious medication mistakes."
To view the Boston Globe article, click here.
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