Primary Cause for Abuse, Neglect and Medical Mistakes in Hospitals & Nursing Homes

Abstract

Understanding that the primary cause of abuse, neglect and medical mistakes in hospitals and nursing homes requires a new perspective that it is the existing systemic chaotic health care staff deployment and scheduling practices that are the problem. This perspective includes examining how inconsistency, discontinuity and lack of cohesiveness in these practices result in chaotic staffing. Additionally, these practices also contribute to fatigue, burn out and attrition in health care staffs that adds even more to the chaos. There are good solutions to stopping the chaos but they are ignored in favor of bad government solutions that only create more chaos. The bad solutions result in low quality care and high health care costs by spending more to provide less. The good solutions increase quality care and lower health care costs by spending less to provide more.

Keywords: Abuse, Neglect, Medical Mistakes, Hospitals, Nursing Homes

JEL Classification: H51, I12, I18, I19, J21, J53, L98