Going for surgery? Try our...
Worry-free warranty
US hospital offers guarantee to ensure better patient care from
doctors
By Eugene Wee
May 20, 2007
YOUR new car has one.
So do your new TV sets, DVD players and iPods. Even some condos
have them.
Indeed, most consumer goods these days come with some sort of
warranty.
If they stop working, take them back, and the manufacturer will
repair them for free.
But what about medical care?
It can cost as much as a car. And doctors are human, so mistakes
will be made.
The only difference is, if we can't afford repairs for our car or
TV set, we can do without them.
The same can't be said for subsequent medical care if a procedure
goes wrong with your heart or kidney.
While the idea of having warranties for medical care seems logical,
it's surprising that more hospitals are not offering it.
That's why a US hospital is experimenting on providing such a
warranty to learn if it can encourage hospitals and doctors to
provide higher-quality care.
The New York Times reports that the Geisinger Health System in
Danville, Pennsylvania, is testing a patient-care programme that
essentially guarantees the workmanship of its doctors.
For a flat fee, surgery patients are assured 90 days of follow-up
treatment at no additional charge should complications arise from
their surgery.
It's surprising that we, as consumers, have not made a bigger fuss
about warranties for procedures on which our life could depend
on.
Yet we would haggle for hours with a salesman over adding an
additional year of warranty for a new home theatre system.
One US medical expert said that in no other field would consumers
tolerate the frequency of error that is common in medicine.
Singapore would do well to study if adopting warranties for medical
procedures here would work, especially since it hopes to become a
hub for medical tourism.
Thailand is already attracting hordes of foreigners seeking medical
procedures at prices up to half what some Singapore hospitals
charge.
Surely, the promise of warranties for procedures done here would
entice many to choose quality over price?
In the US, the sale of cars from South Korean maker Hyundai, which
was once voted as having the worst-quality cars there, jumped
almost four-fold after it offered a radical 10-year warranty for
its engines.
Having similar warranties for healthcare here might also help avoid
cases like the one involving Madam Sandar Aung, who flew her mother
from Myanmar to Singapore for a stent operation in 2004.
What was meant to be a two-day stay costing $15,000 turned into a
344-day stretch costing $537,000 after complications arose during
surgery.
She refused to pay, and the hospital sued. But the court took her
side after ruling earlier this year that she was only liable for
the estimated costs the hospital initially gave her.
Unfortunately, offering a warranty for surgery may not be as
clear-cut as offering one for a TV set.
If a TV set breaks, it can be replaced.
Not so with human lives.
That's why it is hard to give any kind of guarantee on the work
done on something as fragile as the human body.
Offering warranties for procedures could open doctors and hospitals
up to more lawsuits from patients who suffer from complications
that are entirely beyond the control of doctors.
The cost of medical care may even go up due to the higher medical
insurance premiums doctors may have to pay to shield themselves
from ensuing legal battles.
Having warranties for operations here will be a boon to patients
and Singapore's ambitions of being a medical hub. But we may need
to see how the experiment at Geisinger pans out before making that
move.