Indiana Medical Malpractice Lawyers Support Patient Safety Surveillance Systems
An increasing trend toward the use of surveillance systems to monitor health care professionals in hospitals, is very encouraging to Indiana medical malpractice lawyers. In fact, we would like to see this trend permeate into hospitals in Indiana.
Last month, we blogged about a Rhode Island hospital that has been ordered to have video camera surveillance systems in its operating rooms, after a series of surgical errors. In Maryland hospitals, doctors could soon be the target of specially hired “secret eyes” that would monitor their hand hygiene. In November, Maryland used $100,000 in federal stimulus funds to finance an initiative by hospitals to train “secret shoppers” who would observe if doctors and other health care staff washed their hands after emerging from a patient’s room.
This is the first time that federal funds are being used for this unique experiment. It’s all part of a nationwide trend in which hospitals are trying to reduce the incidence of errors and their exposure to medical malpractice lawsuits by monitoring staff more closely.
As Indiana medical malpractice attorneys, we have been especially concerned at the low rates of hand hygiene compliance by health care staff. Nationwide, these rates fall between 40 and 50 percent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that many of the 1.7 million medical infections picked up by patients every year, are caused at least partly by poor hand hygiene.
Manufacturers are catching on to the new interest in surveillance systems. They are putting out surveillance devices using wireless technology, video cameras and radio frequency identification chips. At least one New-York based company is developing video cameras that focus on hand washing areas. The video cameras are connected to lasers that sense motion and begin to record hand washing activity.
However, all this surveillance is raising some concerns that too much snooping could have a counterproductive effect on health care staff, who may feel victimized.
