Hospitals are testing patients’ patience on infection rates

I salute CEO Paul Levy’s courage and visionary leadership in posting Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s infection rates on his blog. Every patient wants hospitals to compete on quality, not just cost—which hospitals fear, and block.

Critics who cite measurement problems in comparing different hospitals' infection rates are both correct and highly distracting. Legislation filed by Sen. Moore and Rep. Denise Provost and 45 co-sponsors, and backed by even more legislators, would require that all Massachusetts hospitals publicly report their infection rates, on a common yardstick. We’ve run out of patience, as the legislators know.

An executive in a nearby large hospital system contemptuously commented about his competitor's blog post, “What’s a blog?!” We patients know serious errors occur daily, and through blogs like PatientSafetyBlog.com we are getting smarter about where and how to get the best care. Hospital leaders might want to read the stories of medical errors that we’re learning and telling each other.

Read Liz Kowalczyk's column in the Feb. 23 Boston Globe...