New patient web site may offer lopsided view of care
By Thomas Day
So now there will be a website for patients to share detailed views of adverse medical events. The grandly named “Empowered Patient Coalition,” in collaboration with the Consumers Union Safe Patient Project looks to give voice to these patients and their loved ones. I hope they’re not offended when I suggest this will not provide reliable or truly analyzable data, as it will be impossible to discern the crazy posts from the legitimate ones. How can I be *so* sure?
I had a knee replaced in September. The surgeon did a great job, the device fit great, the hospital care was spectacular, and I was given a home rehab program to help me heal well and strong. When I saw the surgeon for a follow-up visit, I told him, “Great job, you did your part and gave me a plan to do mine and everything works great!”
And then the surgeon took off. “I can’t tell you how many people blame the surgery procedure for their knee not working right,” he said. “They’re 200 pounds too heavy, didn’t do the exercises for strength or flexibility, and they complain to me about how their knee doesn’t work, and that I can’t expect them to lose weight, and that the exercises were hard. So many patients feel so little personal responsibility for their care and recovery, it’s discouraging.”
I can only imagine how that would look on this Empowered Patient Coalition website – posted anonymously, of course. While it has the patina of an egalitarian, high-transparency effort to bring adverse events out into the open, this looks more like Yelp, but with even greater extortion potential.
Thomas Day is president of HMC.
