Teaching hospitals which rack up dozens of safety violations from CMS are also the training ground for the next generation of physicians, which could increase the risk of those young doctors picking up habits that result in unsafe care or burning themselves out and leaving the profession.
In an analysis published by STAT, the majority of the 1,200 teaching hospitals in the U.S. weren’t cited for any violations between 2014 and 2017. A select few had racked up dozens. One such safety violation described in the STAT article involved Jackson South Community Hospital in Miami, where an anesthesiology trainee inserted a feeding tube into a patient’s lung. This caused the patient to develop pneumonia and sepsis and prolonged his hospital stay by two months—all because the trainee inserted the tube without proper supervision.
“In the places where young doctors-in-training practice, what they learn can affect how the person will practice for decades to come,” said Rosemary Gibson, a patient safety advocate and the author of the book “Wall of Silence.” “They’re developing habits … and it’s essential for trainees to learn in clinical settings where patient safety is baked into the system.”
STAT identified more than 5,500 safety violations at teaching hospitals from 2014 to 2017. The highest number of citations (45) went to Idaho’s West Valley Medical Center.
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John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.