In a survey by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) survey of hospital culture, some revelations came to light. It was disturbing that 26% of health care workers say whenever pressure builds up, managers want them to work faster, even if it means taking shortcuts. Fifty percent said they work in a “crisis mode”, trying to do too much too quickly and disturbingly, 36% report that safety is sacrificed to get more work done. Safety does not seem to be the priority when managers/administrators exhort workers to do more and overlook repetitive safety problems.

This is probably the tip of the iceberg. Each hospital is already under financial stress. They are placing higher unattainable financial targets in order to clear their overhead expense and try to break even what with the government cutbacks, increasing expense of business, etc.

It is hoped that with evolution in healthcare funding, there will be less emphasis on volume and more on good outcomes and results from the care delivered.

Complications can occur when a patient receives care. In fact, some patients develop a complication such as a wound infection after surgery. When that happens I don’t feel it is due to a mistake or error but many hospitals approach this in a punitive way. An email/letter is sent to the doctor but to get the point across it is also sent to the Department Head, Chairman of Surgery, and various administrators, so the complication is for all to view. All this does is make doctors reluctant to report errors.

Dr. Lucien Leape from Harvard in testimony to congress said, “the single greatest impediment to error prevention in the medical industry is that we punish people for making mistakes.”

Only by developing a “Just Culture” and transparency like the airline industry where errors are reported without punishment will lead to improvement in healthcare safety. Continuing to push providers and punish the bad outcomes will leave healthcare mired in the last century.