Hospital wants us to admit dead patients

[Siggy]

admitting service pushback

If someone called me to give report on a corpse my response is going to be...

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[TooMuchResearch]

If someone called me to give report on a corpse my response is going to be...

View attachment 391147

"CEO says do it or you're fired."

 

[Siggy]

"CEO says do it or you're fired."

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

The hospital already has poor mortality rates and the lowest quality ratings so I’d wager they really just don’t care. It's a pretty unique situation but for context its an inner city safety net teaching hospital that loses millions of dollars every year and would have closed a long time ago but they get millions of dollars in subsidies to stay open and operate the hospital. In essence there’s a ton of free unregulated government funds currently involved so the admin has no real motivation when it comes to improving their metrics.

Regarding the cases themselves I’m not an expert on billing and coding but they don’t actually declare the patient as dead in the computer until the admission order has been already placed. So if you read their notes it looks as though the patient arrived then was seen then was admitted before they ultimately died when in reality they were never alive the whole time. The crazy thing is that if you actually read the chart timeline it's clear fraud since the patient came in dead at x time had no interventions but the patient is not declared to be dead till x time after x min.

For an example of a patient if we had a GSW head down for 60 min that arrived we'd call a level 1 trauma then wait for the trauma team to arrive then have them assess the patient then have them admit the patient then have them declare time of death. As a result the patient would basically receive an EM Note + Trauma Team Activation Note + Trauma Team Service Note. The Service Note would then state hospital day one and the patient was seen and evaluated on the trauma service for 60 minutes of which 60 minutes was spent on critical care

I’m not a lawyer but this has to be illegal. Even if technically legal.

 

[Apollyon]

I’m not a lawyer but this has to be illegal. Even if technically legal.

Yes, but no?

 

[GatorCHOMPions]

The hospital already has poor mortality rates and the lowest quality ratings so I’d wager they really just don’t care. It's a pretty unique situation but for context its an inner city safety net teaching hospital that loses millions of dollars every year and would have closed a long time ago but they get millions of dollars in subsidies to stay open and operate the hospital. In essence there’s a ton of free unregulated government funds currently involved so the admin has no real motivation when it comes to improving their metrics.

Regarding the cases themselves I’m not an expert on billing and coding but they don’t actually declare the patient as dead in the computer until the admission order has been already placed. So if you read their notes it looks as though the patient arrived then was seen then was admitted before they ultimately died when in reality they were never alive the whole time. The crazy thing is that if you actually read the chart timeline it's clear fraud since the patient came in dead at x time had no interventions but the patient is not declared to be dead till x time after x min.

For an example of a patient if we had a GSW head down for 60 min that arrived we'd call a level 1 trauma then wait for the trauma team to arrive then have them assess the patient then have them admit the patient then have them declare time of death. As a result the patient would basically receive an EM Note + Trauma Team Activation Note + Trauma Team Service Note. The Service Note would then state hospital day one and the patient was seen and evaluated on the trauma service for 60 minutes of which 60 minutes was spent on critical care.

Just think about how many people are complicit in this scheme? I used to work at a similar inner city ED, but still the buck would've stopped at multiple levels.

Seriously why not do what @oldtown suggested in the first reply?! Can one of us steal your identity for the whistleblower case?

 

[Angry Birds]

I admit plenty of corpses. But not actual dead people.

 

[RustedFox]

I admit plenty of corpses. But not actual dead people.

Spitting facts here, bird.

 

[AlmostAnMD]

View attachment 391169

I kind of get it

It's easy to have that attitude on the sidelines. But then when you're the sole breadwinner, paying a mortgage, med school debt, kid school, etc and suddenly your job is in jeopardy I imagine it's easy to have people fall in line to commit crimes.

So glad I'm getting out