healthcare

But Donald Trump calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” is the real problem?

Via WSJ.

Needless patient suffering, fatal delays in medical treatment and retaliation against whistleblowers. These are among the well-publicized failures investigators found at hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Yet they are also the shameful hallmarks of another federal health-care system: the Indian Health Service.

Part of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Indian Health Service is required by treaty to deliver health care to Native Americans around the country, with more than two million depending on this federal agency. Unfortunately, it appears to be failing. Tribal members have told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about alarming conditions at hospitals run by the IHS. During the committee’s investigation, which began last summer, we have heard accounts of nurses unable to administer basic drugs, broken emergency-resuscitation equipment, unsanitary medical facilities, and seriously ill children being misdiagnosed.

The heartbreaking story of 45-year-old Debra Free provides one example. The Winnebago tribal member was a patient at an IHS hospital in Nebraska in 2011. Overmedicated and unsupervised, she became dizzy and fell out of bed. Ms. Free died a few hours later. An incident like this never should have happened, and nothing can make up for the loss, suffering and injustice that her family has endured….

Tribal leaders have written to the Department of Health and Human Services identifying underperforming supervisors and upper-level management personnel who deserve firing. Our committee’s investigation found no sign that these employees were terminated. Instead, poorly performing employees are transferred to other facilities and, in some cases, even given pay raises and promotions with no record of bad performance ending up in their work file….

Related:

New America Media: Indian Health Service Out of Money — Will You Die Waiting?

****************************************************




This section is for comments from tammybruce.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Tammy agrees with or endorses any particular comment just because she lets it stand.

You must be logged in to post a comment.