The Overburdened Health Care System in New York

September 23, 2010

The Overburdened Health Care System in New York

A renowned New York medical institution, the 160-year-old St. Vincent's Medical Center, treated its final patient in April of this year. Shortly thereafter, another blow struck the New York City medical community with the shocking revelation that thousands of echocardiograms (a sophisticated medical test involving the use of ultrasound technology on the patient's heart) performed at Harlem Hospital Center had gone unread. The backlog of test results that had never been reviewed by a trained cardiologist reaches all the way back to 2005, the same year that a policy change introduced a new method of analyzing echocardiogram reports. That method involved a preliminary review of results by a technician to identify potential anomalies that should be examined by a cardiologist.

The failure to review these critical tests was uncovered by a review performed by staff members of Columbia University. Preliminary results show that as many as 200 patients had died in the interim with their echocardiograms never having been reviewed. Thankfully, the administrative wrangling that produced the tragic situation at Harlem Hospital Center was isolated -- no other facilities implemented similar policies.

The fact that this egregious medical error occurred in Harlem -- a notoriously poor area of New York City -- has led some critics to assume that the patients at this hospital received subpar treatment because of their economic vulnerability. Others, however, see the situation at Harlem Hospital Center as indicative of flaws in the entire American health care system.

In spite of the extremely long hours and tireless efforts put in by doctors around the nation, patient wait times are increasing, staff levels continue to be cut, critical treatment is denied, misdiagnosis is rampant and unnecessary testing is siphoning off already stretched resources. If one positive thing has come out of this breakdown in Harlem, it is that a spotlight has been put on the entire field of health care. A discussion has been sparked about an overwhelmed, overtaxed and overworked system. The hope is that revamping the field will prevent similar problems from arising in the future.

Article provided by Perecman & Fanning PLLC
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