Why Is No-One Accountable In Healthcare?

Speaker A: Foreign. Welcome to the podcast the Patient's Voice. Does it matter? This is a place where your voice will always matter to me. Health care is complicated so I wanted to create a space. We'll discuss tips and hot topics, provide resources and have guest speakers who are experts in the healthc care industry or actual parent patients that are sharing their experience in helps of hoping you navigate any healthcare setting. I want to focus on you, the patient and discuss issues that matter to you in an open and transparent way. I'm your host, Krista Hughes, the founder and CEO of Hughes Advocacy and I am a board certified patient advocate. I have a passion for patients so let's be the change together. So welcome back friends. In today's episode we're going to talk about accountability. Today's episode is something that infuriates me and I'm very passionate about and that is why there is no accountability in any health care setting. As an advocate, I work with clients all over the country and the lack of accountability in doctor's offices, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted livings, etc. It's the same no matter where you live or what health care setting you're in. And it is a tremendous problem. No one is in charge and it's not a top priority. So what do I mean by no one is in charge and accountability is not a, uh, top priority at the federal, state or local levels. So first I'm going to give you a few examples and then I will explain what I mean. I know we've all heard of hipaa. It's a federal and state law that has been around since 1996 and there's a fine for being in breach of your HIPAA civil rights. And it can either be a fine or up to one year imprisonment. I had a client who was on a vent and could not speak for themselves. The family was the patient's voice. The family had appointed me as the patient advocate. We emailed, texted and verbally requested the CEO to speak with me 18 times in which they denied us our HIPAA rights and refused. I also reported this incident at the local, state and federal levels for this facility breaking the law in hopes of some accountability. What I just say, this law's been around since 1996 and its fines are up to one year in prison. We received notice from the agency that this patient's HIPPA rights were not violated, which is a lie. I called to find out why as we had it well documented and we were told we didn't use the right buzzwords. Are you freaking kidding me? They broke the law. Are we allowed to break the law with citizens and not be accountable by getting a speeding ticket? We're held accountable. Health care plays by its own rules. There's no accountability and no one in charge. I, uh, had another client who was in the hospital with a UTI and had sepsis. The hospital decided. They decided that the patient was going to be discharged on a Friday. We'll say that again. The hospital decided. This is not shared decision making and it's not patient centered care. As an advocate, I know you have to discuss this with the family because they have a voice and an opinion. I asked the nurse to call me before the patient was discharged to go over vitals to ensure the infection was gone and a discharge plan. Neither the nurse nor the doctor called to discuss and discharge the patient without even the family's knowledge. I called and reported this to the C suite of the hospital. Three weeks later, the patient was readmitted back into the hospital with a worse UTI and sepsis. No one is accountable. They do whatever they want because the health care system knows nothing will happen to them. It gets covered up. And you're not only stuck with your health being compromised by them not being account accountable, but what about the expensive hospital bill you get for bad care? Did you know that you do not have to pay your hospital bills if you are readmitted back into the hospital within 30 days of you being discharged for the same issue? A lot of people don't know that. And they go with debt for a hospital's problem. So these examples are what I mean by no accountability. No one's in charge. You notice presidential candidates are not talking about it. In a recent article which I'm going to link in the show notes, a colleague friend of mine, Sue Sheridan, had this to say. It's unbelievable that no agency in the United States government is accountable for reducing medical harm or making sure that Americans are safe in the health care system. I mean, that's scary. Also in the same article, Dr. Adams, he's the former Surgeon General and he's also an anesthesiologist and a critical care specialist. He said, if you're going after the health care system, it's a losing political argument regardless of the parties, Democrat or Republican, because there's a lot of financial interest. That's your problem. It always comes down to the grade of the dollar. There's a financial interest in keeping the current health care system intact and a lot of room, uh, for the opposite party to criticize. Neither party has a real financial Incentive from m a campaign perspective to take on this issue. Even though most Americans say this is an issue they are incredibly frustrated about, still health care doesn't make it to the top of uh, their to do list. And again, in that article, Sue Sheridan said again, and this happened, an executive order was actually given, um, to President Biden on patient safety. And it has been sitting on President Biden's desk waiting for his signature for months. And what this order, this executive order calls is for high, uh, White House level, a White House level coordinator of patient safety and a national patient safety team be available where we as patients can report medical errors. She went on to say signing it would be transformational. Back to this whole thing that I'm frustrated is there's no accountability and nobody is in charge. Did you know improving patient safety has been discussed for 25 years and billions of dollars have been spent on it. But where is the improvement each year I comment to my colleagues, this is the worst I've ever seen it. Well, in 2024, in my opinion, we're moving back to the 17th century. Where has all that money been spent on improvements? I have a client who has shared her testimony with me and her family has suffered generational harm. Her mom died, her husband's mom died. She was harmed, she was misdiagnosed. Her daughter almost died due to patient harm and now her grandchild. This is disgusting and I'm trying to do something about it. I'm um, currently reaching out to members of the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, because medical errors and harm do not have a political party. And I want to introduce a bill to the Senate floor to mandate scalable monetary penalties for health care systems. Lying and covering up what they've been doing obviously is not working. And the only way it's going to change is to hit them where it hurts financially with penalties. Now I'm not big on the government getting, excuse me, involved, but I'm tired of going to funerals, hearing about harm, being lied to, being bullied and feeling helpless. It is time for change because patients lives are at risk. You know, healthcare executives and politicians, they don't get the same health care you and I get. How can they make suggest change if they're not walking the same reality as we are? We all have to start speaking up. And bless your heart if you do not think this is happening to you, because I promise you it is. And most people just don't even know it's happening. It's not a matter of if, but it's when. You will Experience this harm. Here are a few more examples to explain the lack of accountability. If there were monetary penalties in place, I promise you things like this would stop. I had a client who was being harmed, misdiagnosed and not getting the proper treatment. While in the hospital. No one would answer the phone. They refused to talk to the patient and they treated the patient without going over the treatment plan with the family. You can not do that. So after feeling helpless and desperate, I reached out to the C suite, the hospital, uh, begging we should not have to beg for health care. That's written all over their hospitals that you've got the best quality of care ever. Begging for help. And this patient was uh, dying. Guess what happened? Instead of helping this family and that patient, this se suite level decided they were going to call me a name and called me, told me I was deplorable for reaching out to them. It still infuriates me to my core because of this. Uh, like I feel like I'm playing in the sandbox with five year olds. But what makes me mad is calling me deplorable and not helping. This patient died. There's no accountability. No was in charge. That is what healthcare has turned into. You stand up for yourself and when you do, you get bullied, called names, blackballed from the hospital or further harm happens because they're mad at you. Are we in middle school? Another patient was in critical condition and we asked for a bedside huddle to be able to speak with all this patient spel specialist on his patient care as there were several conflicting treatment plans happening. Well, masking for a huddle really hurt their ego because we demanded this after we reviewed the patient's medical records and pointed out the mistakes. Now I want to stop right here and let you know this is was all done extremely professionally. So before I continue, but at the end of the day, your job as a patient or your loved one is to fight for your health, period. So everything I always say is very professional and tactful and respectful for my clients or for my loved ones. But I do get my point across. So we're asking for this bedside huddle. Going through the medical records and the family expressed their serious concerns for their loved one. The CEO of the hospital then said to them about me, I want to stop Krista right now and apologize to you family members that you hired a tv, um, reality show host to help you with your loved ones care. The family got furious at this CEO and said if we did not hire this uh, TV reality show host as our Advocate our parent would already be dead. Again, no accountability. Bullying. All because we are patients trying to hold their, hold them accountable. And when we try to hold them accountable, we get the harm done to us. And his care got worse for us even bringing this up. Patient died. The patient died. And you know what the worst part is? Uh, nothing changed. Um, we reported it to the federal, state and local level. Nothing changed. Um, we obtained the full medical records. And do you know that what we're being yelled at on the phone call that one of the doctors that was on that phone call in the medical record stated he was actually at the hospital working on this patient when he was not only not at the hospital that day, it was his off day and he was on a zoom call with us. Cover up. No accountability. Lies. They get away with it again. Another patient dead. What happens all the time is they ignore us, they don't call us back, they don't make us part, uh, they don't make us part of the care team. But we're patient centered care. Um, they make decisions without us and they make up their own treatment plan. That is not patient centered care or shared decision making. When you're at the ne hospital next time, notice how many posters or mission statements are on the wall or the elevators that say they're all about the patient safety, patient experience and patient centered care. The sad thing is they do not do, uh, what they say. I always tell my clients that if someone on your health care team does not like that you have an advocate, then get a new doctor. That is a huge red flag. For example, I had a client who had stage four cancer with less than one year to live. She wanted to live long enough to make it to see her granddaughter, her grandchild born. And there were ways to make this happen, but. But her voice was not being heard. So she retained me for my services. I went with her to a doctor's appointment and the first thing out of her, her doctor's mouth was how much are you paying for this advocate? I got, uh, furious and asked him if he all, ah, will also want to know how much her shoes cost and was he her financial advisor or her oncologist. I went on to remind him that we were at this appointment for this patient that's sitting in front of him who has less than a year to live. I fought for this patient and thank goodness she did get to see and hold her granddaughter before she passed. I had another client who hired me and we went with them to the appointment. When I introduced the nurse practitioner started Asking me about my training, where did you get your credentials and whether I was a nurse. I had to stop her and remind her why we're at disappointed. This is a red flag when it happens. I immediately got this patient a new doctor and found out he had been horribly misdiagnosed by the last doctor he had. I'm going to wrap up the show by explaining why this is important to you as the patient and how to make your voice matter and how can we bring about change. It is important to you and, uh, this is all important to you and your loved ones because your lives are at risk for harm. You have to educate yourself. Go to my YouTube channel and watch the online courses I have available. Make your voice accountable by reporting harm. Let me know if you'd like me to do a podcast on how you report harm. I'll gladly do that because there's several ways. At the local, state and federal levels, patient harm has got to start being reported. Reach out to your senator and congressman and let them know you won't change. And one of my meetings that I had on the Hill, I was told that constituents are not making complaints to their, um, senators and congressmen and therefore it's not a top priority. Make it a top priority. Your life to depends on it. Again, there is no accountability in health care and I can't tell you how, again, how much this infuriates me and we've got to do something about it Now. Make sure you check out the resources that I mentioned in the show notes. And that brings us to the end of this episode. I hope it was beneficial to you. As always, thank you for listening to the patient's voice. Does it matter? If you enjoyed the show, make sure you follow rate and review me on Apple podcast, Spotify and Google POS podcast. Also, please reach out to me if you or or your loved one needs help in navigating ah, the health care system. If you have topics you would like to know more about, or if you want to be a guest on the show, be sure to come back next time. Until then, this is Christa Hughes and don't forget I have a passion for patience. So let's be the change together.