UPMC likes to keep secrets.

imenid37 · Dec 10, 2004

I don't get this attitude.They are certainly not alone. Secrecy is such an integral part of the healthcare management culture. There's definitely an us/them mentality when it comes to employer/employee issues. We can be fired for disclosing our rate of pay to another employee. Why? If we are all being paid fairly and equitably, the hospital should not be ashamed for one to know another's rate of pay if the employee chooses to share it. I don't work for UPMC, but have gone to several programs in the past year re. medical errors. It would seem to be very true, that secrecy esp. of physicians, allows a lot of errors and near-misses to pass under the radar screen. Not being forthcoming re. board membership/resignations to protect the "image" of the institution is no surprise. Although an institution may be "non-profit" there are millions of $ and intangibles like prestige at stake, so it is no stretch of the imagination that there are many who want to protect this at all cost. If a prominent board member wants to expose a weakness or fault within the institution's structure, this could be a great threat to the very fibre of the institution and to those who wish to maintain the status quo. While having a very prominent figure as a board member is prestigious for the institution, having that person disagree w/ established policy or practices w/in it is a major threat because of the respect and power that person may enjoy in the community. The institution may also worry that having a person seen as "controversial" on the board may leak out and taint their public image. I think the whole patient safety issue is fascinating and although it makes senese to those at the bedside to reform practices in order to enhance patient safety, it poses a threat to the status quo. One of the patient safety "hot-button" issues is nurse:patient ratios. If a nurse is taking care of more than 4 patients at once in the acute care setting, the risk of death while under his/her care increases by 7% for each patient beyond those 4. There are a lot of institutions who would not want their nurse:patient ratios exposed to the public or the fact that nurses are doing a lot of overtime at a particular facility which also puts patients at risk. I hope to see more public demand by the public for disclosere about what is going on in healthcare at all levels from bedside to the board room, but I think you are going to see a lot of resistance esp. from those in powerful places.

SmilingBluEyes · Dec 10, 2004

Hmmmmmmm