How can that be in the best state in the nation?
"Care of mentally ill faulted in report; US survey reviews patient follow-up; state well below national average" by Liz Kowalczyk | Globe Staff May 19, 2014
More than half of mentally ill patients hospitalized in Massachusetts were sent home without a complete plan for follow-up care, newly released data show. And for patients who had plans, hospitals often did not communicate the information to the right person.
The information is posted on a federal website, Hospital Compare, that provides consumers with insight into the quality of psychiatric care at 1,753 individual hospitals across the country. Until now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rated hospitals only on how they treat patients’ physical illnesses.
Despite the state’s top-notch teaching hospitals and broad health insurance coverage, Massachusetts scored well below the national average on discharge planning for mentally ill patients....
The new Medicare data also describes how often hospitals put psychiatric patients in restraints or seclusion to control their behavior. Massachusetts has an initiative to dramatically reduce these practices, which can cause injury or even death to patients....
Related: When Anger Turns to Fear
You can smell it.
Medicare also planned to post information on how often hospitals discharge patients on multiple antipsychotic medications, and on when these are inappropriate. Technical issues compromised the data and Medicare now expects to release that information in April 2015.
Related: Nursing Home Will Make You Nuts
And Mass. is big on biotech.
Question: is it possible our elderly are being used as nothing but guinea pigs? The Constant Nursing Home Aide?
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You know, the more you look at the Deval Patrick legacy, the more rotten it looks. Everywhere you turn these days his tenure is marked by neglect and failure. At least he had a good time living the life.
