Hospital Patient Care in California: Watch Your Back

Santa Ana, CAYou go to the hospital to get well, not to die. But the latter turned out to be the case for some patients in California, and the State demonstrated its displeasure yesterday by citing 18 California hospitals for various violations against State health codes. Each was fined $25,000 for providing shoddy care.

''The number of penalties will decrease and the quality of care will dramatically improve as hospitals take action to improve,'' said Kathleen Billingsley, director of the health department's Center for Healthcare Quality, in an interview with the Associated Press (AP). ''The entire intent of these fines is to improve the overall quality of care in California.''

Let's hope so. Some of the examples cited leaves you shaking your head.

According to one report originating from a hospital at La Mesa, one patient died in the midst of a patient transfer after a hospital worker forgot to turn on a ventilator. A patient in Santa Ana died from a medication overdose administered by a hospital worker, and still another died after falling out of a wheelchair. A hospital worker had failed to buckle the patient in with the required seat belt.

And there are more stories. Reports of patients left with surgical sponges, or other surgical instruments left inside their bodies, resulting in pain and suffering until a second surgery could be scheduled to rid the hapless patient of the extra baggage.

In San Pablo, a registered nurse at Doctors Medical Center failed to properly insert a catheter tube into the neck vein of a patient. The individual died as the result of an air bubble. While the male nurse involved defended himself by boasting other nurses call upon him to insert IV lines into difficult patients, or patients with extremely small veins, the report nonetheless found that the nurse in question had failed to complete a required anatomy class, or hospital-sponsored training pertaining to procedure and protocol.

The report, released August 18, found that some patients at the cited hospitals in California experienced surgical awareness during their procedures, due to improper anesthesia.

In other words, they woke up in the midst of their surgery.

Imagine the horror…

So far, the State of California has issued 61 penalties to 42 hospitals in recent years.

The AP report did not reveal whether or not any of the patients involved in this latest round of citations, or the families of those who had died, had planned to file lawsuits against the facilities involved.

But by God, they should…