WP: Physician-Owned Hospitals Faulted on Emergency Care

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/09/AR2008010903140_pf.html

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 10, 2008; A02

Most physician-owned specialty hospitals are poorly equipped to handle medical emergencies, federal investigators will report today, underscoring a long-standing concern about the rapid rise in the number of such hospitals.

The report found that 55 percent of 109 physician-owned hospitals reviewed had emergency departments -- and that the majority of those had only one bed, wrote Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Fewer than a third of the hospitals had physicians on site at all times, and 34 percent relied on dialing 911 to get emergency medical assistance for patients in trouble, according to the report.

Moreover, 7 percent of physician-owned hospitals failed to meet Medicare requirements that a registered nurse be on duty at all times and that at least one physician be on call if none are in the hospital, the report found. Twenty-two percent failed to address in their written policies how emergency cases should be evaluated and treated when they arise.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services does not require participating hospitals to have emergency departments, but the agency does mandate that they keep written policies for handling emergency needs. It also says they cannot rely on 911 services as a substitute for their own first-line emergency care, though there is no prohibition on calling 911 to transfer a patient to another hospital.

The study did not name the hospitals.

FULL story at link.