Problem with ‘county hospital’ even worse than Republic reports
The bosses obviously on vacation, the Arizona Republic committed real journalism today. The newspaper dug out the serious accreditation crisis facing the Maricopa Integrated Health System, which serves 400,000 mostly poor residents and operates the "county hospital." According to the story by Yvonne Wingett and Amanda Crawford, two of the few surviving serious reporters at the joint:
A detailed inspection of the county’s health-care system obtained by The Arizona Republic revealed widespread record-keeping problems and other flaws that could have posed risks to patients’ safety.
Since the inspection, the Maricopa Integrated Health System has been
overhauling operations and has spent about $1.5 million so far to
address the deficiencies, which were identified in September by the
Joint Commission, a national accrediting body. MIHS, which operates the
Maricopa Medical Center, says it has fixed many of the problems and
continues to address others.
The reports revealed a culture of incomplete or inaccurate medical
record-keeping that meant, in some cases, there was no proof that vital
patient-care processes were conducted.
The danger is the people see the headline and the photo of Maricopa Medical Center, then shake their heads and murmur about wasted tax dollars and freeloading Mexicans. In fact, this is an intriguing political disaster and a lost opportunity of the first magnitude.
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