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You indirectly mentioned it in passing (through the corollary), but it's a very real issue: hospitals simply would not report anything. This would even encourag
by rjf72 8y ago
You indirectly mentioned it in passing (through the corollary), but it's a very real issue: hospitals simply would not report anything. This would even encourage hospitals to do things such as ensuring that things such as this are not detected. No need to report an outbreak if you don't/can't detect it! This is a particularly great example of unforeseen consequences. Though in this case (and many) these unforeseen consequences can actually be quite foreseen if you just consider practical reactions to things.
And as a consequence of the above, the current system is also likely more beneficial for patients as well because hospitals need not worry about anything other than doing as optimal a job as possible. Something like this sounds like it stands a good chance of eventually spreading everywhere. And so would you be safer at a place that has or has not detected it? Obviously you'd be better off in a place without it, but again once we introduce those unforeseen consequences a place not detecting it is absolutely not the same as a place not having it. By contrast the place that has it has indicated that they are actively screening for it and presumably doing all they can to try to manage it.
- cloverich 8y agocoudn't that be solved with standardized testing procedures, mandatory compliance inspections, and criminal penalties for willful negligence?
- panarky 8y ago> This would even encourage hospitals to do things such as ensuring that things such as this are not detected Trial lawyers in New York created an organization [0] that systematically maps sidewalks and streets to identify cracks and holes that cause slip-and-fall accidents. They provide these maps and supporting data to the city for free, and in the process they can prove that the city had constructive knowledge of the risk. That way the city can't avoid liability by claiming they didn't know. It seems that a similar "service" could alert hospital managers to the risk of C. auris, and thereby neutralize intentional ignorance as a defense. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Apple_Pothole_and_Sidewalk_Protection_Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Apple_Pothole_and_Sidewalk...
- rincebrain 8y agoCity streets and sidewalks are readily publicly viewable, though, while medical facilities go to great lengths to not let people see whether they've screwed up. I agree it'd be extremely useful, but it's a harder problem to get visibility into.
- vageli 8y agoMandate the visibility and let's see how hard it is.