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500,000 hospital patients sent home too soon every year (UK)
Daily Mail ^ | 1/31/10 | James Chapman

Posted on 01/31/2010 5:05:14 PM PST by Nachum

(and 1,500 a day readmitted for emergency care)

More than 500,000 patients every year are readmitted to hospital after apparently being sent home too soon, alarming figures reveal.

Labour's waiting-time targets have been blamed for the 50 per cent rise in emergency readmissions of patients within days of them being discharged.

Critics said it was a scandal that almost 1,500 a day were apparently being released before they are well enough, harming their recovery.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: healthcare; hospital; medical; obamacare; patients; rationing; sent; singlepayer; socializedmedicine; year

1 posted on 01/31/2010 5:05:14 PM PST by Nachum
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To: Nachum

It would be 10 million over here with OsamaCare.


2 posted on 01/31/2010 5:06:05 PM PST by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops, and vote out the RINO's!)
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To: Nachum

slackers - put them back in the fields. Always want others to pay their relaxing stay in hospital.


3 posted on 01/31/2010 5:10:16 PM PST by edcoil (If I had 1 cent for every dollar the government saved, Bill Gates and I would be friends.)
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To: Nachum

Coming to America.


4 posted on 01/31/2010 5:14:56 PM PST by Carley (Are you better off now than one year ago? HELL NO!!!!!)
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To: Nachum

Socialist stealth euthanasia.

Hate to break it to you, but this is already here. Unioted Healthcare, Aetna, and Medicare already mandate this.

Obamacare would however turbo-charge the patient abuse.


5 posted on 01/31/2010 5:26:37 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. - H. L. Menken.)
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To: FormerACLUmember

From better to worse:

You go to hospital. You pay yourself. You run short of money. Hospital sends you home early.

You go to hospital. Your 3rd party insurance company pays for you. Insurance company looks to cut costs. Hospital sends you home early.

You go to hospital. Your neighbors (via government confiscation) pay for you. Government panel looks to cut costs. Hospital sends you home early.


6 posted on 01/31/2010 5:39:17 PM PST by mbarker12474 (If thine enemy offend thee, give his childe a drum.)
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To: Nachum
Welcome to Obamacare, the Prequel.


7 posted on 01/31/2010 5:42:10 PM PST by Oceander (The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance -- Thos. Jefferson)
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To: Nachum

It’s already happening here. I had a friend in his late 70s who went in for surgery for kidney cancer. Hospitalization costs are high; Medicare pressures the hospitals to keep stays to a minmum, so the hospital released him to nursing home care, the nursing homes (mostly money-grubbing) were careless and incompetent, so he not only did not convalesce but got worse, so back to the hospital he went. There were about 4 cycles of this. If he had been kept in the hospital longer the first time, total costs might have been half what they were.

Had the nursing homes (”rehabilitation centers”) provided really first rate medical care, he might well have convalesced and gone home from the first “rehabilitation center.”

But why didn’t he get quality medical care outside the hospital? One guess: it would have cost a lot more, perhaps closer to hospitalization cost.

My daddy always said, You get what you pay for.


8 posted on 01/31/2010 6:17:26 PM PST by Houghton M.
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To: mbarker12474

Big difference if insurance company or hospital sends you home too early in the US—they can be sued for poor standard of care.

Government? It has immunity.


9 posted on 01/31/2010 6:51:00 PM PST by cosine
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To: mbarker12474
From better to worse: You go to hospital. You pay yourself. You run short of money. Hospital sends you home early. You go to hospital. Your 3rd party insurance company pays for you. Insurance company looks to cut costs. Hospital sends you home early. You go to hospital. Your neighbors (via government confiscation) pay for you. Government panel looks to cut costs. Hospital sends you home early.

Excellent points.

Alternative:

You go to hospital. Your 3rd party insurance company pays for you. Insurance company looks to cut costs. Hospital wants to send you home early.

You pay privately from that point onwards.

You are discharged when well.

You file formal appeals for coverage gap, sue the insurance company, complain to the State Insurance Commissioner, etc. for reimbursement.

10 posted on 01/31/2010 9:13:23 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. - H. L. Menken.)
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