Is public safety on a need-to-know basis? Well, JPS, we need to know about that elevator
Health care professionals are, by nature and by virtue of their training, caring folks.
So we have faith that the professionals at John Peter Smith Hospital are doing everything they can to assure the safety of patients and staff after an elevator accident seriously injured an employee last Sunday. And we fully understand the need, both legal and empathetic, for patient privacy.
But as we respect the health care field’s aims, we ask that they appreciate the value of transparency, particularly with regard to public safety and health.
As of Friday, five days after the incident, few details have been provided about how the accident occurred in an elevator used by the public. All we know is that the employee was given CPR afterward.
We were unable to extract basic information about what happened with the elevator. Was it a precipitous fall and sudden stop? If so, what caused it?
We understand the elevator, and all others in the facility, have been checked and serviced since Sunday, which is reassuring, and that the purple elevator bank involved in the mishap remained in lock-down all week.
What we don’t know is if it malfunctioned, or how or why. Or if there had been problems beforehand. Or its service history. Or if there’d been complaints about it or its contractor.
A spokeswoman told us Friday afternoon that details of the incident, even those not involving patient privacy, were being withheld pending a report by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Why wait? One would think that, of any public institution, a hospital would want to get out in front of concerns the public might have about their safety. You go to a hospital to get better, not get hurt. It would seem reasonable to want to inform the public fully about what happened and why.
No one should want that more than the hospital itself. A good bit of the health care mission is reassuring people. We once read of an emergency room whose mission statement was “We make people feel better” — in large part an acknowledgment that it’s as important to minister to a patient’s psyche as his or her body.
The psyche of patients, employees and the public took a hit when that elevator lurched for whatever reason. It could have been any one of us inside that thing. Rather than let the specter of it haunt the rest of us, it would be nice, and indicative of a good bedside manner, if hospital officials released as much information as they could, instead of as little as they have to. They must know in their hearts there is information about the incident that isn’t embargoed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
If it’s fear of lawsuits, well, if we followed all the legal advice out there we’d probably never leave home. Might it not be a workers’ comp issue anyway? And even if not, the public isn’t asking for any information that a good plaintiff’s lawyer wouldn’t get eventually.
Can you imagine asking your doctor about your health and being told “that’s on a need-to-know basis”?
Why on Earth should public safety be?