Hospital Protocols Not Followed Can Be Deadly Mistakes By Hospital Staff Trying To Safe Money

Hospitals are businesses.  They have a bottom line that they need to keep healthy.  Unfortunately, sometimes this means that the bottom line needs to remain healthy so the patients do not.  It is a sad truth that hospitals do put patients at risk all in the name of profit.  The risks that some hospitals take to save money can only keep an extra $20 in their pocket, but it can expose a patient to utterly life-threatening conditions or even kill them.

One example is a sad example.  When a patient leaves a room to be discharged, some of the items in the room and supplies will remain.  The hospital protocol is to throw out all of the unused items.  This is because the patient may have contagious diseases and conditions.  Patients may also have bacterial infections or spread germs which can cause illness.  But some hospitals will actually leave the supplies there or reuse them.  This can easily get more patients sick or contaminated with the old patient’s supplies.

What is worse is when hospital providers do this when the patient passed away.  That is right—the patient will pass away in a room and the hospital staff will still keep all of the unused supples in there.  If a patient is overcome by a disease, infection, or sepsis, it can result in the death of other patients by using the same supplies.

Hospitals have these protocols for a reason to ensure the safety of all patients.  Cross-contaminating patients is a very dangerous practice all to safe just a few dollars.  Think of some of the very dangerous conditions that a hospital an expose a new patient too, such as infection, TB, measles, Mumps, hospital-acquired infections, and other related dangers.  These can all be very fatal and easily avoided.