The Cost of Cutting Corners: A Pound of Flesh?
- 6/17/2009
- Author: Jim Parker
- Category: Perspectives on Patient Safety Blog
- 12869 Views
- 0 Comments
In a past life I did a great deal of reporting on occupational safety and transportation safety. During that time it became apparent to me that many people viewed safety measures as an expense, draining money away from their personal or organizational bottom lines.
What the data revealed, time after time, was that investing in safety was actually a cost saving measure. The cost of injuries and illness in the workplace and on the roadways clearly outstrips the cost of common sense measures to prevent them.
I suspect that the same is true of medical errors—that the cost of treating iatrogenic injuries and illnesses is greater than the cost of prevention measures. One indicator of this is the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services decision to not reimburse organizations for care resulting from “Never Events” (as the National Quality Forum’s serious reportable events are often called.)
In Perspectives on Patient Safety’s August cover story, health care leaders from across the country weigh in on how the recent economic downturn has affected patient safety in their organizations. I think now more than ever the argument that safety is an investment that will save money as well as lives needs to be made. As far as I have seen however, hard data on this question is scarce.
If any readers have seen some data or studies on this, or have a story they would like to share about how financial hard times have affected patient safety, please comment or shoot me an email at patientsafety@jcrinc.com.
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