Connecticut 47th of 50 States in Discipline of Doctors

Health Department defends discipline of doctors

Updated: Friday, 25 May 2012, 1:30 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 25 May 2012, 1:30 PM EDT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A spokesman for the state Department of Public Health is defending how Connecticut punishes doctors after a study by a consumer advocacy group showed the state has one of the lowest physician discipline rates in the country.

William Gerrish  told the Journal Inquirer that last week's report by Public Citizen focused only on a narrow slice of information about serious disciplinary actions and ignored the wide variety of sanctions imposed by the state Medical Examining Board including reprimands, censures and fines.

Public Citizen said Connecticut ranked 47th out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., in taking serious actions against doctors including license suspension and revocation.

The study said Connecticut took less than two serious actions per 1,000 doctors, when the national rate was about three per 1,000.

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Information from: Journal Inquirer

JAMA Finds a Relationship Between Patient Mortality and Nurse Staffing Levels

Hospitals with high patient to nurse ratios experience a higher mortality rate among surgical patients according to the Journal of the American Medical Society.  Below are results of a study conducted by JAMA.

After adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics (size, teaching status, and technology), each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 7% (odds ratio [OR], 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.12) increase in the likelihood of dying within 30 days of admission and a 7% (OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.11) increase in the odds of failure-to-rescue. After adjusting for nurse and hospital characteristics, each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 23% (OR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.13-1.34) increase in the odds of burnout and a 15% (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.07-1.25) increase in the odds of job dissatisfaction.

Conclusions  In hospitals with high patient-to-nurse ratios, surgical patients experience higher risk-adjusted 30-day mortality and failure-to-rescue rates, and nurses are more likely to experience burnout and job dissatisfaction.

For the complete study go to:  http://jama.jamanetwork.com

Michael Quinn, Esq.

Hospital Survey by HHS

• Did doctors treat patients with courtesy and respect?
• How often were the room and bathroom cleaned?
• Was the area around the room quiet?
• Did the patient get immediate help after pressing a Call button?
•  www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov  To review the results.

These are some of the questions that were asked in a recent survey taken from patients at random from 2,500 hospitals nationally.  

You will not be surprised to learn that many patients feel that they were poorly treated while in the hospital.

Michael Quinn, Esq.