Patients need more information to select safer hospitals

On a scale of 1-100 for hospital safety, the consumer advocacy magazine ranked the San Martin Campus at 24. However, the highest-ranked hospital received a score of only 72 out of 100.

There are lots of ratings issued for hospitals, and the San Martin Campus was recognized in 2011 for service excellence for Outstanding Inpatient Experience by J.D. Powers and Associates. U.S. News and World Reports recently gave it kudos for neurology and neurosurgery.

But a poor rating for safety from a respected magazine is worrisome.

Hospital officials, when asked for comment, didn’t address the magazine’s specific concerns. A 185-word statement said nothing about the average ratings for infections, the high number of readmissions indicating a problem, the poor communications rating and excess scanning.

Without mentioning areas where this hospital was found wanting, hospital officials offered a generic response. Part of it read: "Patient care and safety are always our highest priorities at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals. Our hospitals are committed to ensuring access to safe, quality patient care by adopting best practice guidelines recommended by national health care quality organizations."

Thirteen Southern Nevada hospitals were ranked for safety. In order of best to worst, they are Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center, Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals-Siena Campus, Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center, North Vista Hospital, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, University Medical Center, Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center, Valley Hospital Medical Center, Mountain View Hospital, Summerlin Hospital Medical Center, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals-Rose de Lima Campus and the aforementioned San Martin Campus.

Many states don’t require much disclosure by hospitals, which is why the magazine ranked only 18 percent of all hospitals.

For proactive patients, the magazine suggested two websites – the government-run Hospital Compare at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/ and the independent Leapfrog Group at www.leapfroggroup.org

As a longtime admirer of Consumer Reports, I agree with its proposal that a national system should track and publicly report medical errors to identify hospitals with patterns of problems.

On the magazine’s list of eight things that should never happen in a hospital is accidental punctures or cuts by surgeons.

Coincidentally, I recently learned of a lawsuit filed in April alleging exactly that at the San Martin Campus.

Dr. Elliot Wade, an internist who graduated from medical school in 2005, performed the surgical procedure. And it’s the second time he has been sued for medical malpractice in a wrongful death case in Nevada.

The first pending lawsuit was filed by attorney Gary Logan on behalf of the family of Dr. Manish Jain, who died from sepsis on April 23, 2010. Wade is accused of not checking his patient in a timely manner and contributing to his death at Summerlin Hospital.

The second pending lawsuit was filed by attorney Martin Kravitz on behalf of the widow of David Whetstone, who died July 13, 2011. He had entered the hospital with pancreatitis in April, and Wade had conducted a procedure without using an ultrasound to guide his needle and repeatedly perforated Whetstone’s bowel, according to the lawsuit. Whetstone died from sepsis.

The attorney representing both Wade and his employer, Nevada Hospitalist Group, did not return a call. Neither did an administrator from the group, which also was named in the lawsuit.

According to the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners, no public disciplinary action has been taken against Wade.

Meanwhile, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals didn’t say whether Wade lost his privileges to practice in its local hospitals.

Why isn’t it public information accessible on a database when a doctor loses his hospital privileges?

Consumer Reports should add that to its proposals to improve hospital safety.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison