By James Girards
We've written before about how hospital secrecy laws endanger patients. The danger arises because with secrecy there is no genuine accountability. Hospitals are the only industry protected by such secrecy laws. Other industries drastically lowered their needless injury and death rates when the public eye was allowed to see what they were doing inside the auto, aviation, and manufacturing industries to name just a few. But, not the hospital folks. With no way to find out what actually happened when someone is needlessly injured there is no way to determine who is responsible and why and assure that needed changes are made to protect future patients. The hospitals say "trust us - we will take care of accountability for you" and reduce the danger. But, decades of studies show the opposite is true. Now, a new study published by Healthcare Incentives Improvements Institute gives Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas an "F" when it comes to ability to learn needed information about your doctor. That means residents of these states can find out no meaningful safety information about their doctors' level of demonstrated skill, judgment or medical/surgical treatment success. Which leads us to the poster child for hospital-secrecy-reform: Dr. Christopher Duntsch. We've written about him before at this link. What we've learned now is even more disturbing than you can imagine. Many patients came to him unaware there was a fire-storm going on in the hospital about how dangerous he was in the operating room and not if, but when, he was going to kill or maim someone - while the hospital administration knew about it and turned a blind eye. And, these new patients had no way to learn about how dangerous he was even if they did all the research in the world because of the hospital secrecy laws. Duntsch's story is the perfect example of why hospital secrecy laws should be changed. Stay tuned. We will be writing more about him soon.
For help with your medical malpractice case, call The Girards Law Firm at 888-333-9709