Time for Healthcare Reform: Hospital Accreditation, Blind Spot, Blinders or Worse?

Is this a Blind Spot?

Another Terrorist’s plot uncovered, one of many over the years since 9/11. We have surfaced the numerous known defense vulnerabilities in the nation’s hospitals and healthcare systems. We see that the industry has failed to take advantage of vulnerability mitigation through design and construction deterrence opportunity. We see a House Homeland Security Subcommittee briefed last week that less than 40 of an approximately 1,000 Hospital and Healthcare Research based Cesium-137 containers (half of the dreaded “dirty bomb”) remain unprotected, hardened. Considering the dangerous nature of this product, anti-terrorism experts say it should enjoy at least a triple layer of protection.

Terrorism threats from inside and outside hospitals and research laboratories have steadily grown with while security at these sites remain apathetic and in some cases resistant to previous official warnings. According to a recent GE Security Study, over half of these facilities lack electronic “lockdown” capability, creating a “window of opportunity” which will make the difference between success or failure to defend against terrorist attack. Insider threats against hospitals from fired or disgruntled employees and other entities who may find reason for revenge (patients, relatives of patients, domestic anti-everything groups etc) grow.

The United Kingdom found “insider threats” from its physician population. Physician terrorist suicide/homicide bombers were and are a continuing threat. Intensive international background checks of physician groups found more than potential bombers. Drill-down background checks revealed misrepresentation of certifications and educational experiences, which exposes trusting patient populations to unqualified practitioners or other dangers.

Hundreds of dedicated Congressional leaders, Staff members, Federal, State, Tribal, Territorial and Private Sector folks are “out there” ensuring your safety in the nation’s hospitals. These groups are lead by powerful legislators from both sides of the aisle supported with talented and seasoned staff members. Federal Agencies, old and new, spanning the entire breath of Administrative regulatory entities support this effort.

A sizable chunk of the responsibility for direct oversight of the nation’s hospitals is vested in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) armed with the “Deeming Authority” based on a set of “Conditions of Participation (COPs)” CMS controls who receives reimbursement for the vast number of government beneficiaries treated in these facilities. The Center, CMS, delegates the actual “Deeming” (accreditation) to private sector contractors and state level agencies to assess the hospitals compliance with of these guidelines (COPs). There is the (naive) assumption by many that these surrogates act as a tripwire for known gross violations which may be under other federal and state agency purview (DHS, NRC, OSHA, FDA, EPA to name a few) during the course of their assessments. As we will see in future posts, there are egregious examples of failure at oversight to protect a trusting public. Blind spots, blinders, or what?