The Illinois Department of Public Health declined to investigate 85% of the 560 hospital complaints it received last year, even when the reports alleged violations such as patient abuse and inadequate infection control, records show. Some allegations of serious harm or death were not pursued even though federal law requires that such claims be investigated within 48 hours. "These are serious complaints," said Lisa McGiffert, director of the national Consumers Union Safe Patient Project. "If the regulatory system is collecting these complaints and not responding, that is a massive failure of oversight." Complaints can reveal crucial systemic problems, experts say. And when it finds violations, the state can order hospitals to make corrections.
Hospitals are scrambling to improve customer service in advance of a change tying Medicare payments to higher scores on patient-satisfaction surveys, today's Informed Patient column reports. But improving patient satisfaction means engaging hospital staff in the effort — and changing hospital cultures that haven't traditionally focused on the patient as a customer. Hospitals are hiring consultants and service coaches to help, training employees to be more responsive, bringing in executives with experience in the hospitality industry, and even tying employee compensation to a hospital's performance on the satisfaction surveys, known as HCAHPS.
"I'm a great kvetcher," said Pearl Schwartz, sitting in her hospital bed at NYU Langone Medical Center. Indeed, during her brief stay to receive a pacemaker, Ms. Schwartz, an 88-year-old retired state worker, had a litany of complaints. Sure, the nurses were "splendid, warm and kind" and sang in her room — and her operation went off without a hitch. But her sink was too small, she had to wait eight hours in the radiology unit for an X-ray, and no one brought her anything to read as she had requested. Winning praise from patients has become a pressing — and often elusive — obsession for NYU and for hospitals nationwide. In the coming months, Medicare will start taking patient satisfaction into account when reimbursing hospitals. Disgruntled patients will mean reduced revenue, a frightening prospect for hospitals already facing empty beds.
In today's harried medical environment, what doctors and other medical professionals say or don't say to patients may matter more than ever. Congeniality is no substitute for competence, of course, but most patients prefer that their doctor treat them with respect and concern. So there's little surprise about patient views in a recent study done by the University of Michigan Health System that videotaped 18 doctors' interactions with 36 patients, and then interviewed both participants afterward. Overwhelmingly, the patients focused on whether the doc seemed in a rush, made eye contact and listened carefully to what they said.
Federal drug officials on Thursday claimed credit for an increase in the approval of new drugs and argued that the results demonstrated the need for legislation to continue financing the current drug approval system. The Food and Drug Administration approved 35 new drugs in the year that ended in September, a number that was surpassed only once in the past decade. The agency approved 24 of the drugs before they were approved in any other country. And many of them were important advances, including the first new drug for lupus in 50 years, the first new drug for Hodgkin's lymphoma in 30 years, and the first drugs for late-stage melanoma that have been shown to prolong survival. "I want to underscore that we approved a set of drugs that are truly medically important, and in fact did so in a way that made these drugs available to Americans before other places around the world," Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the F.D.A., said at a news conference.
A Maryland congressman for a second time is demanding a drug wholesaler answer questions about its handling of one of many lifesaving hospital drugs whose shortages have been disrupting patient care and leading to deaths. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been probing alleged price-gouging by secondary suppliers accused of offering scarce drugs at huge markups. Early last month, Cummings demanded information from several so-called "gray marketers" about where they were purchasing the drugs in short supply, what they were paying for them and how much they're charging hospitals.