Doctors don’t like to rat each other out. They have oversized egos and God complexes. Most regulatory agencies are overworked and understaffed, and therefore most complaints are not fully investigated. Most people who encounter problems at a hospital or for that matter anywhere else don’t bother to complain about it or don’t have the time and energy to follow through on their complaints. The organizations which accredit hospitals are funded by the hospitals; they have a vested interest in downplaying complaints against accredited hospitals for that reason and because it makes them look bad when a hospital they accredited is proven to have done something stupid (FYI, the organization which accredits St. Elizabeth’s told me, when acknowledging my complaint, that they would investigate but would be unable to inform me of the results of their investigation). Sweeping changes are expensive. Dysfunctional corporate cultures are as hard to change at hospitals as they are anywhere else. Damages are capped by law to $20,000 for many malpractice lawsuits against non-profit hospitals such as St. Elizabeth’s.

I suppose it’s also true that not all of St. Elizabeth’s is so awful. My wife had three kids in their maternity ward, and they were fine.

Do you think the Catholic Church has made sweeping changes to how it does things in response to the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandals that have been uncovered recently all over the world, e.g., in Boston of course and more recently in Italy? Somehow I doubt it. Keep in mind that St. Elizabeth’s is part of a Catholic hospital network. It is not at all surprising that the culture of non-accountability which pervades the Catholic church would be prevalent at a Catholic hospital. And just as the Catholic church is extremely powerful and manage to hide the sexual abuse for many many years, so too St. Elizabeth’s has power.

You have also heard before my own story of going there with what was initially diagnosed as a pulmonary embolism but turned out to be pneumonia. No guesses what a (needless) night in the RICU cost! or what continued anticoagulant would have done for me as I continued to have bacteria dancing in my lungs! In that case the ER doctor had left the decision as to which radiological technique to use up to me –I was pregnant, he was afraid to decide on anything involving radiation. I probably would have made a different decision regarding method (since I was being forced to make one, despite several hours of being mostly unable to breathe and 140 bpm tachycardia) *had he given me correct information regarding the three possible methods.*

To be fair, the one *other* time I went to their ER –to remove a large, deep splinter from my oldest’s hand (it was beyond my ability, and the pediatrician, when I described it over the phone, said it was beyond his too) they dealt with the problem quickly, efficiently, and what appeared to be correctly. Anything worse than a splinter, though –or requiring differential diagnosis– it’s Longwood Ave. for me!