From: Lena McCubbin
Columbus
Shame on The Republic for the misleading headline, “Columbus Regional 6th on error list.” Columbus Regional Hospital had no wrong body part operated on, no foreign objects left in after surgery, no falls resulting in death or serious injury. Instead the focus was on the one category of pressure ulcers.
No one should be harmed by avoidable pressure ulcers. I spent 20 years of my nursing career toward that goal. However, pressure ulcers cannot be totally prevented with the best of care.
It may be that CRH is sixth on the list because it is honest enough to report events that other hospitals don’t recognize or don’t report. If a hospital doesn’t have the expertise to recognize some very subtle ulcers, it won’t be reported nor the cause corrected. CRH has that expertise.
Columbus Regional has made tremendous strides in eliminating several categories of pressure ulcers in high-risk populations. The manpower and expense that go into pressure ulcer prevention are considerable and cannot be appreciated by reading the article.
