A month later? That’s when the bill arrives:
Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — Heart attack patients in the U.S. get out of the hospital sooner than those in other countries and more often are readmitted within a month, researchers said, suggesting they may need better care after being sent home.
The research, which analyzed data from 15 other countries including Canada, France and Germany, found a 68 percent higher risk of readmission among U.S. heart attack patients. Americans left the hospital in three days, on average, the shortest time of any country, the study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It is not just with heart attacks that patients are sent home too early in the U.S….
A dozen years ago my brother had bypass surgery. It was the same week Johnny Carson had similar heart surgery. The difference was, my brother was sent home after two or three days, while Mr. Carson stayed in the hospital for a week or more. The day after my brother bot home he was watching TV, coughed, and felt something tear inside his chest. Apparently something healed incorrectly, and the simple cough tore it open. Even though he was rushed to the hospital, he died due to blood loss and lack of oxygen to the brain.
Had my brother still been in the hospital, vital time would have been saved, probably resulting in his life being saved. Mr. Carson life, of course, did not have to depend on an insurance company’s bottom line to determine whether he was sent home early. My brother’s life, unfortunately, did.
(FWIW – I am glad Johnny Carson had the resources to ensure proper medical treatment, and that he lived another half-dozen years. I simply used him as an example of how a patient should be handled versus how the bean counters – and not the doctors – determine things will be done.)