Hospital Care
One of the benefits of private health insurance is the opportunity to select your choice of hospital but how much do you actually know about them?
A recent debate has highlighted the need to make information about hospital performance available to the public, especially information about preventable complications occurring during hospital care.
In America, health insurance companies may not pay extra costs for serious complications which the hospital could have prevented such as objects left in a patient after surgery, air embolisms and serious hospital infections, labelling these as “never events” that is, events that should never occur in a competent hospital facility. This system of transparency has been introduced in New York. The scheme holds hospitals accountable, in turn assisting to improve medical services.
This concept is new in the US but there’s no doubt the focus to improve quality and safety as well as keeping costs down will be prevalent for both the Australian public and private health care systems. As a potential or would-be patient with private health insurance, equipped with the choice of hospital, wouldn't you prefer a system of transparency? Let us know what you think.