Why and how hospitals bully and ill-treat patients

Dr Aniruddha Malpani, an IVF specialist and a strong advocate of patient therapy tells us exactly how and why hospitals the very places that are supposed to cure illnesses have become like big corporations who only look out for themselves.

Dr Aniruddha Malpani, an IVF specialist and a strong advocate of patient therapy tells us exactly how and why hospitals the very places that are supposed to cure illnesses have become like big corporations who only look out for themselves.

Hospitals are meant to be temples of healing. Ideally, it should be a sanctuary where patients can feel safe and secure; because they are confident they are getting the best medical care. Sadly, the reality is that not only can a hospital be a dangerous place; they also seem to take a perverse pride in ill-treating patients.

We all know that hospitals can be hot beds of hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infections and that medical errors in a hospital can cause a number of preventable deaths. However, rather than make patients feel comfortable, most hospitals seem to do their best to make patients feel worse.

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They often design and follow procedures which seem to be established to protect the hospital's best interests not the patient's. For example, when the patient is admitted, many hospitals will insist that the patient repeat many blood tests from the hospital lab even though he may have done them a few weeks ago, from a reliable lab! Hospitals justify this by saying lots of outside labs are unreliable and they can only trust the results of their own lab. The other specious justification is that lab results can change within a few days!

This is a complete waste of time and money for the patient, because the vast majority of the time, the tests results is exactly the same. However the patient has to bear the brunt of thee unnecessary costs most of which are passed onto the hapless health insurance company, which does not want to interfere with the medical decisions made by the hospital, as they do not feel that this is their domain.

It's very easy for hospitals to justify this over0testing by saying this is our hospital policy. The patient's physician is also helpless; because he also needs to follow the rules of the hospital and cannot carve out exceptions for his patient, no matter what his personal opinion maybe. This kind of mindless decision-making is not very helpful for anyone concerned, except for boosting the hospital's profits. It does not improve the care provided to the patient; and the unnecessary duplication of tests wastes money and causes pain and discomfort.

The only way to push back is by empowering patients, so that they can refuse this kind of forced over-testing. Sadly, the individual patient is pretty helpless. He is vulnerable, and is forced to pretty much blindly accept whatever the hospital policy is, once he gets admitted. He is scared and does not want to antagonize the hospital staff, so he falls into line.

The only effective way prevent this problem is by getting the insurance companies involved. They have the financial clout to be able to negotiate with the hospital management. Thus, they could say the policy is fine, but if the tests were done from specified, trusted labs; and within the last one month, the hospital would not mindlessly insist that the patient repeat the tests. They could honour the policy, but also create intelligent exceptions to this, thus creating a win-win situation, and making sure that money is not wasted.

The author Dr Aniruddha Malpani is an IVF specialist who is also very passionate about improving patient knowledge and patient-doctor relationships. He is a pioneer in the field of information therapy the right information at the right time for the right person and blogs at http://blog.drmalpani.com.

Also read Dr Malpani's other articles on doctor-patient relationships, patient advocacy and healthcare:

Why I criticise doctors

What does a doctor mean when he says: 'I don't know'?

Why do doctors disrespect patients?

15 tips to make your doctor's consultation better

No doctor can treat a patient without his permission

2014 The year of the Aam Patient

A layman's guide to getting the best during a hospital stay

Medical negligence: How to file a complaint

Patient rights in India what you should know

Have a doctor's appointment? Make the most of it with these tips

Patient Rights how not to get quacked by babas and medical cures