Consumer Reports - August 2012

The current issue of Consumer Reports contains a major article on hospital safety.  They list "8 things that should never happen in a hospital"  and number one on the list is Bedsores.  They state that their attempts to rate hospitals are hampered by a lack of disclosure:

"Still, our Ratings include only 18 percent of U.S. hospitals because data on patient harm still isn’t reported fully or consistently nationwide. “Hospitals that volunteer safety information, regardless of their score, deserve credit, since the first step in safety is accountability,” says John Santa, M.D., director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center. “But the fact that consumers can’t get a full picture of most hospitals in the U.S. underscores the need for more public reporting."

This is confirmation the NDF decision to emphasize state by state requiring of the reporting of hospital errors is on the right track.