Check out the story below on NECN today discussing St. Vincent Hospital’s shocking performance as one of the state’s leading hospitals for incidents of serious medical error and patient harm. The story features powerful comments from St. Vincent nurse and MNA co-chair Marlena Pelligrino, who makes it clear that the true cause of the hospital’s poor performance is chronically poor RN staffing conditions. This hospital, which has the worst safety record in the state, now wants to force patients to be cared for in the hallways of inpatient units, units where nurses already have a full complement of patients. This story, and the hospital’s record on patient safety is an indictment of the management of the hospital, while also underscoring the need for safe staffing legislation to prevent callous and irresponsible hospital administrators from continuing to place patients health and safety in jeopardy. It is important to note that St. Vincent Hospital has the second highest profit margin of all Massachusetts Hospitals.
http://www.necn.com/Boston/Health/2009/04/10/St-Vincent-Hospital-tops-list/1239400886.html
St. Vincent Hospital tops list of patient mishaps
(NECN: Jennifer Eagan, Worcester, Mass.) – A report released this week puts St. Vincent’s hospital in Worcester at the top of a statewide list of patient accidents and medical errors at acute care hospitals. St. Vincent’s reported 25 incidents to the Massachusetts Department of Health in 2008. Among them, 12 patients who were injured from a fall, and four patients who had a foreign object left inside of them from a surgery. The hospital will work on regulations to prevent patient falls, the type of accident that happened the most by far at all hospitals in the report. There will also be a small radio frequency tag attached to all surgical sponges to alert doctors if the items are inside a patient.
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