Maggie Mahar takes the NY Times editorial staff to task on Medicare’s never events. The piece stated that doctors and hospitals need to work “harder” to stop errors.

As if doctors spend all day drinking and cavorting.

Often times, medical errors occur because doctors have too much on their plate:

Let me suggest that telling staff to “work harder” is not the answer to hospital errors. Most often, patients are harmed because too many people are doing too many tasks under too much pressure””with too little time to communicate properly with each other.

Medicare’s no-pay list, and especially its proposed expansion to include hospital infection, falls and delirium, is fraught with unintended consequences. Those so eager to point the finger at physicians should be careful of what they wish for.