Another reason private equity should not be in healthcare; serious medical errors.

We all notice the changes in healthcare and all patients and providers of healthcare are feeling it.

Service is down, costs are up, the system is impersonal and the bills are getting larger for the same services that cost much less just a few years ago. This is especially true as hospital systems have monopolized your area’s healthcare.

Part of this is courtesy of private equity which has invested heavily in healthcare companies, often overspending and then loading the companies up with debt while they attempt to survive the business model.  Part of the model is that costs must be lowered so now we have systems with fewer staff.

A side effect of this is medical errors as reported by the NY Times recently.   Serious medical errors are not what the doctor ordered.  Check out the article below:

Serious Medical Errors Rose After Private Equity Firms Bought Hospitals

A new study shows an increase in the rate of inpatient complications, including infections and falls, though patients were no more likely to die.

The rate of serious medical complications increased in hospitals after they were purchased by private equity investment firms, according to a major study of the effects of such acquisitions on patient care in recent years.

The study, published in JAMA on Tuesday, found that, in the three years after a private equity fund bought a hospital, adverse events including surgical infections and bed sores rose by 25 percent among Medicare patients when compared with similar hospitals that were not bought by such investors. The researchers reported a nearly 38 percent increase in central line infections, a dangerous kind of infection that medical authorities say should never happen, and a 27 percent increase in falls by patients while staying in the hospital.

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