Don't Get Sick After Hours: The Crisis to Improve Patient Care

Implications: On nights, weekends, and holidays, senior healthcare professionals are rarely found in the hospital.  Problems arise from (1) too few qualified personnel available to address the needs of patients, (2) inability to obtain physician coverage for some specialties, and (3) inability to obtain and/or service medical supplies/equipment.  Therefore, innovative and creative solutions need to be implemented to improve the morality, readmission, complication, and error rates.  Failure to provide such novel approaches will lead to stagnation and further decline in the quality of care which will adversely affect the bottom line and increase liability exposure of the institution and healthcare professionals.

Analysis: On nights, weekends, and holidays, senior healthcare professionals are rarely found in the hospital.  They have earned the privilege to stay at home and have little incentive to work after hours.  This often leaves too few qualified healthcare professionals after hours to address the needs of sick patients with multiple medical problems.  Problems especially arise when there is a delay in obtaining physician coverage for some specialties.  Problems also arise when it is difficult or impossible to obtain technical support for medical supplies/equipment.  As the article states, “The consequences of service deficiencies during off-hours include higher mortality rates and readmission rates, more surgical complications, and more medical errors.”  To successfully address these problems, it will require one to think “outside the box.”  Insurance reimbursements continue to decrease.  Therefore, one needs to be innovative and creative.  Without such innovation and creativity, there will be no improvement in the morality, readmission, complication, and error rates.  This will adversely affect the bottom line and increase liability exposure of the institution and healthcare professionals.