New Helmet Laws Take Effect

Small town rural hospital.

65 year old female admitted to 10 bed hospital with pneumonia.

She has no signs of confusion, is not tied down and has full bathroom use.

While in the bathroom while "straining"

(in the health care field we call that Valsalva)

Guess what happens. She passes out, hits the floor and cracks her dura, leading to a subdural hematoma.

Now, if this rural hospital is like most other hospitals, their ain't a neurosurgeon within several hundred miles.

Patient gets flown to my hospital where a neurosurgeon rushes to decompress this life threatening event, which according to our government is a never event for which the rural hospital should have never allowed to happen.

So the first question to extrapolate is:

1) Was this really a never event? Should the hospital have a pervert standing in every bathroom to wipe your moms ass as she valsalva's her way to a brain hemorrhage?

2) Who is going to pay for the regional center's hospitalization?

If I extrapolate out the rulings, as I understand them, this never event, a fall in the confines of the hospital, will not be paid for.

So does the regional referring center not get paid?

Does the neurosurgeon not get paid?

Does the hospitalist not get paid?

Does my hospital sue the referring hospital to recover the$60,000 in hospital charges that Medicare won't pay?

How would you possibly justify paying my hospital for fixing the never event, but not pay the original hospital for evaluating the event, or fixing the event right at their hospital.

Where do you draw the line in the sand?

Will there be unintended consequences like the unintended consequences of health care reform?

Will hospitals start transferring patients to other facilities to rid themselves of the

unreimburseable charges that are the result of "never events".

Will hospitals with access not accept "never event" events at other hospitals if it will not be reimbursed?

Will patients lose access because of this attempt "increase quality".

I can't wait to see how this plays out.

I can see the headline now:

New Hospital Helmet Laws Take Effect.