Problem: REALITY CHECK: Should Patients Fear Hospitalization? If you are unsure of your answer, consider the risks:

1. Hospital-acquired infections leading to longer hospital stays and thousands of disabilities and deaths, costing the nation billions of dollars annually

2. Medication errors that lead to disabilities and thousand of deaths annually

3. Wrong invasive procedures, such as wrong site, wrong patient, and wrong surgery

4. Falls leading to injury or even death

5. Mistreatment, abuse, and sometimes murder of patients by caregivers

6. Failure to order necessary procedures because of insurance denials

7. Ordering of unnecessary procedures and treatments, placing patients at risks for injury and death

8. Media horror stories (e.g., "Nursing Home Employee Mixed Drug Cocktails to Quiet Residents, Report Says," in which an employee of a McHenry County nursing home at the center of an investigation into suspicious deaths mixed drug cocktails to make sure that troublesome residents "would not be bothering her during her shift," according to a state report, Chicago Tribune, September 25, 2008)

Discussion

1. To follow this course of discussion, are patients fearful to report or complain about the care they are receiving? Discuss your answer.

2. What actions should both the government and hospitals take to help reduce patients' fear?