Is the U.S. deceiving itself about the quality of its hospitals?
"I am sure we have, as we glibly brag, the highest quality of hospital care on earth," Dr. Anthony J. J. Rourke told 2,000 hospital staff members in Atlantic City, N.J. last week. "But we also have a quality of care which I had thought went out with the leeches and purges."
Rourke, onetime president of the American Hospital Association and now a hospital consultant in New Rochelle, N.Y., based his jeremiad on a set of figures from the joint commission (representing such groups as the A.H.A. and A.M.A.) on...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
